Oil edges up ahead of data as dollar slumps

Oil prices turned positive in choppy trading on Tuesday, lifted by a slumping dollar that offset the effect of slumping consumer confidence and still bulging inventories.
The euro jumped to a fresh five-month high versus the dollar and the dollar index fell to its lowest level since February as the gloomy consumer view weighed on the greenback. A weak dollar can lift oil prices as it makes dollar-denominated crude oil less expensive for buyers using other currencies.
Pressuring the dollar and signaling a still struggling economic recovery, U.S. consumer confidence sagged in September to its lowest levels since February, amid deteriorating labor market and business conditions, a report from industry group the Conference Board said on Tuesday.
But ahead of weekly oil inventory reports, persistent high stockpiles and analyst expectations that fuel stocks rose again last week helped keep oil's price bounce in check.
U.S. crude for November delivery rose 21 cents, or 0.27%, to $76.73 per barrel by 1628 GMT, having traded from $75.53 to $77.12, remaining inside Monday's trading range of $75.52 to $77.17.
ICE Brent November crude rose 80 cents, or 1.02%, to $79.37 a barrel.
"The dollar falling has money fleeing into anything, gold, energy. Above yesterday's $77.17 high there should be good resistance at the November contract's $77.34 50-day moving average," said Richard Ilczyszyn senior market strategist at Lind-Waldock in Chicago.
Gold hit a record high as the weak consumer confidence reading boosted the metal's safe haven appeal. The Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, a global commodities benchmark, hit an 8-1/2 month peak.
Oil prices had seesawed ahead of the consumer confidence data after a separate report showed single-family home prices dipped in July, Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price indexes showed.
Oil's early slip was pegged to expectations that inventory reports will show U.S. refined fuel stockpiles rose last week, even while crude stocks were expected to be slightly lower.
Total distillate stocks were expected to have risen 300,000 barrels in the week to September 24, with gasoline stocks up 700,000 barrels, as demand stayed relatively weak, a preliminary Reuters analyst survey on Monday showed.
Crude oil stockpiles were forecast to have fallen 400,000 barrels on lower imports as seasonal refinery maintenance slowed demand, the survey showed.
High crude stocks at the key Cushing, Oklahoma, hub, delivery point for U.S. West Texas Intermediate benchmark crude, has helped put European benchmark Brent at an atypical premium to crude futures, still more than $2 a barrel on Tuesday.
"We are still convinced that with ample supply and high inventories, there is more risk that prices will go down rather than come back up," said Barbara Lambrecht, analyst at Commerzbank.