Oil fell below $65 a barrel on Wednesday, curbing a week of gains after data showing an unexpected rise in U.S. crude stocks suggested demand in the world’s top energy consumer was still weak.

The market awaited U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data due at 1430 GMT to see if they would confirm the trend from Tuesday’s American Petroleum Institute (API) figures.

U.S. crude oil for September delivery was down 90 cents at $64.71 a barrel by 1407 GMT, having fallen to a low of $63.76. London Brent crude for September lost 50 cents to $66.37.

The fall followed five days of rises that had pushed U.S. crude oil futures up more than 10 percent in just a week.

“The market has exhausted itself and needs to pause,” VTB Capital analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov said in a research note. “Today, all attention will be on the weekly U.S. fuel inventories.”

U.S. crude oil stockpiles rose unexpectedly last week as domestic refining activity slumped, the API said on Tuesday.

Commercial oil inventories jumped 3.1 million barrels to 349.883 million barrels, reversing a stretch of weekly declines triggered by thin import levels and defying analyst expectations for a 2.1 million barrel drop.

A Reuters survey of 15 analysts forecast the EIA would report a drop in crude oil inventories as slow imports countered a decline in refining activity.

HIGH STOCKS

But refined products supplies were expected to have risen, despite the lower domestic refinery capacity use.

Global oil inventories are at historically high levels, equivalent to around 62 days of forward demand by the industrialised countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Robert Montefusco, broker at Sucden Financial in London, said oil came under additional pressure on Wednesday after disappointing results from U.S. bank Morgan Stanley .

Morgan Stanley reported its third consecutive quarterly loss on Wednesday, saddled with a charge related to repaying government loans and the accounting impact of improvement in its debt prices.

“We are not getting to much help from the stock market,” Montefusco said. “We’ve had some poor figures from Morgan Stanley so that has put pressure on stocks and oil too.”

But data showing apparent oil demand in the world’s second-largest energy user rose for the third month in a row offered some support.

China’s implied oil demand in June rose 1.8 percent over a year ago, Reuters calculations from official data showed on Wednesday.

July 22 (Reuters)