By Barani Krishnan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil fell as much as 1 percent on Wednesday, with U.S. crude snapping the $40-a-barrel support, as traders looked beyond a mildly positive report on U.S. crude inventories to focus instead on a global supply glut.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said crude inventories rose 252,000 barrels last week versus the build of nearly 2 million barrels forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll. Industry group American Petroleum Institute had anticipated a draw of nearly 500,000 barrels.
"The data was moderately bullish as crude stocks built less than expected, driven by increased refinery utilization," said Chris Jarvis, analyst at Caprock Risk Management in Frederick, Maryland.
Even so, the smaller stock build was "unlikely to relieve the selling pressure on the oil markets with U.S. stocks at record levels for this time of year and knocking on the all-time high set earlier in the year," he added.
The EIA said the eighth straight weekly build in U.S. crude stocks to 487.3 million barrels in the week to Nov. 13 took inventories to within a hair of their modern-day record of 490.9 million barrels set in April.
Stockpiles at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery hub for U.S. crude futures delivery hub
U.S. crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures (CLc1) were down 54 cents at $40.13 by 11:55 a.m. EST after hitting a session low of $39.41. The last time WTI had traded below $40 was on Aug. 27.
Brent crude futures (LCOc1) were down 19 cents at $43.38 per barrel.
Gasoline stocks
Traders were looking for a possible dollar (DXY) rally later in the day that could bear more pressure on oil.
The Federal Reserve is due to release its latest policy meeting minutes at 2:00 p.m. EST and any suggestion of a potential U.S. rate hike in December could up bump the dollar, making it costlier for holders of the euro to own oil and other dollar-denominated commodities.