Oil plumbs to fresh 13-month low

SINGAPORE/TOKYO (Reuters) - Oil fell for a third day on Thursday, plumbing a new 13-month low near $73 as commodity investors again rushed for the exit on fears of a collapse in demand growth with the world economy tilting towards recession.

Bleak U.S. economic data and warnings from the U.S. Fed that tough times are not over led Wall Street to its worst day since the 1987 stock market crash, wiping out earlier optimism fuelled by government steps to avert a financial meltdown. Japan's Nikkei index dived as much as 10 percent in Thursday trade.

U.S. crude for November delivery fell $1.26, or 1.7 percent, to $73.28 a barrel by 6:20 a.m. The front-month contract has lost nearly a third in value in three weeks, the steepest such decline since it began trading in 1983.

London Brent crude fell $1.17 to $69.63.

"The oil markets are now highly correlated to the stock markets. Everyone now uses the stock markets to gauge the health of the economy," said Clarence Chu at U.S.-based options trader Hudson Capital Energy.

Crude now stands more than 50 percent off its July peak above $147, and analysts have scaled back global demand growth estimates after a recent slew of gloomy data that has overshadowed OPEC's talk of possible production cuts and a hurricane that is disrupting Caribbean refining operations.

Japan's crude oil inventories hit a 14-month high last week as crude runs stayed low, in part due to slack domestic demand, industry data showed on Thursday.

JP Morgan cut its average oil price forecast for 2009 to $74.75 a barrel, and the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries also reduced its forecasts for world demand for crude next year in its latest monthly report.

The cartel meets in November in Vienna to assess the global financial crisis's effect on the oil market, with growing expectations it will want to lend support to a market that has been swept up in the deleveraging across commodity markets.