UPDATE 9-Brent steady, U.S. crude down; dollar, gasoline limit oil's downside

(New throughout, updating markey activity and comments to U.S.
session; changes byline and previous LONDON dateline)
By Barani Krishnan
NEW YORK, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Brent oil erased most of its
early losses to trade steady on Thursday on support from a weak
dollar and higher gasoline prices, while U.S. crude slipped on
pressure from large inventory builds.
Brent futures LCOc1 were flat at $44.14 a barrel by 11:52
a.m. EST (1652 GMT), after hitting a session low of $43.70.
U.S. crude's benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures
CLc1 fell 40 cents to $40.35, after hitting an intraday low of
$41.05.
"The dollar is certainly helping commodities today," said
Scott Shelton, energy broker and commodities specialist at ICAP (L:IAP)
in Durham, North Carolina.
"But gasoline is also giving a prop to Brent and widening
its crack with WTI. I'd be careful about being short gasoline."
The dollar fell to a near one-week low against a basket of
currencies .DXY , making crude and other commodities
denominated in the greenback more affordable for holders of
currencies such as the euro EUR= . The 19-commodity Thomson
Reuters/Core Commodity CRB Index .TRJCRB headed for its
biggest gain in two weeks.
U.S. gasoline futures RBc1 jumped more than 1 percent to
$1.29 a gallon after a report that Irving Oil's planned restart
of the gasoline-making unit at its 300,000-barrels-per-day
refinery in St. John, New Brunswick had been delayed beyond the
Nov. 15 target. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N13E1JQ
The profit that refiners get for turning crude into
gasoline, known in market parlance as the gasoline crack
CL-RB1=R , widened to more than $13.50 a barrel, the highest in
2-1/2 months.
While Brent traded higher than WTI due to relatively better
supply/demand fundamentals, the higher gasoline crack was also
supporting the London-traded Brent as U.S. traders eyed more
imports of crude to be refined into gasoline.
WTI hit August lows on Wednesday, briefly falling below the
$40 per barrel key psychological support, after an eighth
straight week of builds in U.S. crude stockpiles that took
inventories to above 487 million barrels, or just below April's
record highs of nearly 491 million. EIA/S
Goldman Sachs (N:GS) said on Thursday there remained a downside
risk to oil prices "as storage utilization continues to climb".
The bank added that "we don't believe that current prices
present an appealing entry point."
"Ultimately the focus will return to the balance of demand
relative to supply, and until inventory data provides evidence
of a tighter supply, the path of least resistance will be
lower," CMC Markets chief market analyst Michael Hewson said.