Oil extends gains above $58 on shares rally and OPEC

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil extended gains above $58 on Friday after climbing almost 4 percent the previous day, as a recovery in equity markets countered increasing signs of a global recession and slowing demand.

Expectations that OPEC would cut output again late this month also lent support, but some analysts said it was premature to conclude that the market had hit a bottom, pointing to high U.S. oil stockpiles and slowing world oil demand growth.

U.S. crude futures for December rose 33 cents to $58.57 a barrel at 3:16 a.m. British time, after closing $2.08 higher on Thursday.

Oil is down almost $90 a barrel since its record of $147.27 in July, and touched $54.67 on Thursday, the lowest since January 30, 2007.

London Brent crude for January, the new front-month, edged up 27 cents to $56.51 a barrel.

"I definitely don't agree with the view that oil prices have bottomed out. No one can say where that would be," said David Moore, commodities strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, adding that the share market rebound in the United States, Australia and Asia as well as the dip in the U.S. dollar aided oil's rise.

Stock markets in Japan and Hong Kong led the region's surge on Friday on the back of the more than 6 percent rally in U.S. equity markets overnight, as investors snapped up beaten down shares despite more grim economic news.

The U.S., China and Germany all provided fresh evidence of the global economic slide, while the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development cut its economic output forecasts for the United States, Japan and the euro zone, saying it sees all three sliding into recession.

The dollar eased versus the yen on Friday after a sharp rise a day earlier, as investors returned to the perceived safe haven of the Japanese currency amid fears about the global credit crisis.