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Crude oil prices riding global stock market waves

November demand was the highest it's been since 2007, API says.

By Daniel J. Graeber

NEW YORK, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Word of a revision to Chinese growth domestic product and continued rallies in major stock market indices helped lift crude oil prices in global trading Friday.

The Chinese National Bureau of Statistics said it estimated the economy was 3.4 percent larger last year than previously estimated, adding about $9.6 trillion to the world's second-largest economy.

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"The revision of 2013 GDP will affect the size of 2014 GDP, but basically will not affect GDP growth for 2014," the NBS said.

The data helped lift regional stock indices, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ending the day up 1.67 percent. The rally follows Thursday's close on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained more than 400 points.

Shanghai's index alone gained 5.2 percent since Monday.

The rise comes amid word that major central banks are taking action to keep economic momentum moving forward. U.S. banks scored a win Thursday when the Federal Reserve decided to let banks hold cash from private-equity and hedge-fund investments, while Russian bankers increased a key interest rate to erase the steady decline in the value of the ruble.

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Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude oil indices followed stock market indices with another rally in early Friday trading, gaining 2.3 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively. Oil is still trading in a bear market, however, down from June highs above the $100 per barrel mark.

Crude oil price gains follow a report from the American Petroleum Institute, which found November demand for energy increased. Total U.S. petroleum deliveries, a measure of demand, was up 1.9 percent year-on-year to average 19.9 million barrels per day, which API said was the highest level for any November since 2007.

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