Crude oil fell in New York after a decline in the stock market and a gain in U.S. stockpiles renewed concern the global recession will sap demand for fuels. Oil’s two-day climb stalled after U.S. banks said credit markets haven’t recovered yet, pulling shares lower in late trading yesterday, while Japanese equities dropped today. U.S. oil stockpiles rose for a seventh week to the highest since September 1990, the Energy Department said yesterday. “Optimism is slowly leaking out like a balloon,” said Jonathan Kornafel, a director for Asia at options traders Hudson Capital Energy in Singapore. “Crude oil is trading as a proxy for the equity markets. People can only ignore the fundamentals for so long.” Crude oil for June delivery fell as much as 45 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $48.40 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $48.45 a barrel at 12:35 p.m. in Singapore. Prices are up 8.6 percent so far this year, after tumbling 54 percent last year. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index ended yesterday down 0.8 percent at 843.55 after rising as much as 1.4 percent. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average dipped 0.5 percent, to 8,686.84. U.S. oil stockpiles rose 3.86 million barrels to 370.6 million, the Energy Department said yesterday. Analysts expected a 2.5 million-barrel gain, according to a Bloomberg News survey. Gasoline inventories climbed 802,000 barrels to 217.3 million. A 700,000-barrel decline in the motor fuel was forecast. Refineries Runs Refineries operated at 83.4 percent of capacity, up 3.1 percentage points from the prior week and the highest since January, the report showed. It was the biggest increase since the week ended Dec. 5. “Even with the refinery utilization number increasing by 3 percent, which is pretty big, there was a bigger build in crude stocks than people anticipated,” said Hudson Capital’s Kornafel. “That tells you right away there is too much crude.” The International Monetary Fund said in a forecast released yesterday that the world economy will shrink 1.3 percent this year, compared with its January projection of 0.5 percent growth. The lender predicted expansion of 1.9 percent next year instead of its earlier 3 percent estimate. “In order to predict the crude market you’ve got to predict global demand and manufacturing,” said Kornafel. “I’m a bit more pessimistic in that I don’t see things turning around until 2010.” Total daily fuel demand in the U.S., the world’s largest oil consumer, averaged 18.5 million barrels in the four weeks ended April 17, down 6.5 percent from a year earlier, the department said. OPEC Output Supplies of distillate fuel, including heating oil and diesel fuel, climbed 2.68 million barrels to 142.3 million, the biggest increase since the week ended Jan. 9. A 1 million-barrel drop was forecast. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed at three meetings last year that the 11 members with quotas would cut output by 4.2 million barrels a day to 24.845 million. The group is next scheduled to meet on May 28 in Vienna. Iran will press for oil prices near $80 a barrel at next month’s OPEC meeting, Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari said yesterday, according to state news agency Fars. The $80 level is necessary to support investment in new oil fields, Nozari said. Brent crude oil for June settlement fell as much as 56 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $49.25 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Europe Exchange. It was at $49.41 a barrel at 12:30 p.m. Singapore time.

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