By PABLO GORONDI Associated Press Writer Oil prices hovered near 4 1/2-year lows Thursday as persistent investor pessimism over global crude demand outweighed the news of OPEC's largest-ever production cut. Light, sweet crude for January delivery edged up 47 cents to $40.53 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Europe. Earlier, it fell as low as $39.19 -- a level not seen since at least July 2004. Overnight, the contract fell $3.54 to settle at $40.06 a barrel, after touching $39.88. The Nymex contract for February delivery, which analysts said better reflected oil price trends, was up 82 cents to $45.43 a barrel. "WTI for January expires tomorrow and ... the expiring contract can go anywhere,'' said Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix in Switzerland, referring to West Texas Intermediate, the type of crude oil used for the Nymex contracts. "As a world benchmark, January WTI needs to be ignored and the focus kept rather either on February WTI or February Brent,'' Jakob said. In London, February Brent crude rose 75 cents to $46.28 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. The 13-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which accounts for about 40 of global oil supply, said Wednesday it planned to reduce its output quotas by 2.2 million barrels a day. But markets had already expected a vastly reduced flow of oil and traders focused instead on troubling economic data that points to a long and severe global economic slump. "The market apparently had already priced in this cut,'' said Peter McGuire, managing director at investment firm Commodity Warrants Australia in Sydney. "I think OPEC will have to have another meeting in January, and I wouldn't be surprised to see possibly a 3 million cut next time.''

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