Crude oil climbed a second day after U.S. jobless claims fell and inventories tumbled as Hurricane Alex disrupted production and deliveries in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil rose as much as 1.9 percent after the Labor Department reported that the number of people applying for jobless benefits slipped a greater-than-forecast 21,000 in the week ended July 3. Stockpiles of crude oil fell 7.26 million barrels last week, the American Petroleum Institute reported yesterday. The Energy Department is scheduled to release its own weekly data today. “Prices are rising on a renewed wave of economic optimism,” said Phil Flynn, vice president of research at PFGBest in Chicago. “The API showed a big inventory decline, probably due to Hurricane Alex. We’re now somewhat prepared for a big drop in today’s DOE report.” Crude for August delivery rose $1.35, or 1.8 percent, to $75.42 a barrel at 9:11 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices reached $75.46, the highest intraday level since June 30. Brent crude for August delivery climbed $1.05, or 1.4 percent, to $74.56 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The number of Americans applying for jobless benefits last week fell to 454,000, a level that indicates improvement in the labor market is taking time to develop. Economists had forecast jobless applications would fall to 460,000 from an initially reported 472,000 for the prior week, according to the median of 36 projections in a Bloomberg survey. IMF Forecast The International Monetary Fund raised its forecast for global growth this year, reflecting a stronger-than-expected first half. The world economy will expand 4.6 percent in 2010, the biggest gain since 2007, compared with an April projection of 4.2 percent, the Washington-based IMF said in revisions yesterday to its World Economic Outlook. The Energy Department may report a 2 million-barrel decline in crude oil stockpiles today from 363.1 million last week, based on the median estimate from 15 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. Gasoline inventories increased 100,000 barrels from 218.1 million, the survey showed. To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Shenk in New York at mshenk1@bloomberg.net

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