London (Platts)--10Sep2009/712 am EDT/1112 GMT

Crude futures pared their early morning gains as equity markets began to slide off morning highs and the US dollar rose.

At 10:47 GMT, October NYMEX crude was $0.41/b higher at $71.72/b, having traded at an intraday high of $72.44/b earlier. The October ICE Brent contract had gained $0.24/b to $70.07/b, having retreated from an intraday high of $70.70/b. The euro was valued at $1.4543, compared with Wednesday's close of $1.4561.

Generally, sources viewed the market as rangebound as "prices traded in the same range as yesterday," one said, with the ICE Brent October contract "hovering around the $70/b mark."

The American Petroleum Institute reported Wednesday a much bigger draw than expected in US crude inventories, of 7.216 million barrels, exceeding analyst expectations of a 1.8-million-barrel draw. Inventories at the NYMEX delivery point in Cushing, Oklahoma, fell 1.38 million barrels, a draw sources said supported a wider October WTI/Brent spread, which was valued $0.17/b higher on the day at $1.65/b.

Separately, the market awaited the release of the EIA weekly inventory report, which is due out later Thursday.

Europe's major markets had all had a strong start to the morning, with the London FTSE trading 31.04 points higher at 5,035.34 before retreating below the 5,000 mark, the Frankfurt DAX gaining 52.71 points to 5,626.97 and the Paris CAC 40 24.23 points higher at 3731.92. All retreated from the intraday highs through the morning.

--Elzbieta Rabalska, elzbieta_rabalska@platts.com