NYMEX-Crude ends up almost 5 pct on big EIA draw

* EIA: crude stocks down sharply, defying build forecast

* Dollar down, Wall St heads higher as energy shares up

* Weak Chinese equities weigh on global markets

NEW YORK, Aug 19 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil futures ended
nearly 5 percent higher on Wednesday, rallying on government
inventory data that showed an unexpectedly large drawdown in
crude stocks last week.

Heating oil futures finished almost 3 percent higher as the
data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed
distillates stocks, which include heating oil and diesel, fell,
against the forecast for a small stock build.

Gasoline futures surged nearly 2 percent, fired up by EIA
data showing a larger-than-expected stock drawdown.

Before the data from the EIA, crude futures were down as
Wall Street slumped. In overnight and early trading, crude
futures jumped above $70, lifted by the bullish date released
on Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute. [API/S]

"The (EIA) data is being viewed as bullish as all stock
categories fell more than expected," said Jim Ritterbusch,
president of Ritterbusch & Associates in Galena, Illinois.

On Wall Street, the Dow and the S&P 500 were briefly up 1
percent, led by gains in energy shares as oil prices rose.[.N]

PRICES

* On the New York Mercantile Exchange, September crude
CLU9 settled up $3.23, or 4.67 percent, at $72.42
a barrel, trading from $68.05 to $72.80.

* The NYMEX September crude contract expires on Thursday.

* The June 30 peak of $73.38 was the highest intraday
front-month crude oil price since crude hit $75.69 on Oct. 21.

* In London, October Brent crude LCOV9 ended up $2.22, or
3.07 percent, at $74.59 a barrel, trading from $71.17 to
$74.90.

* NYMEX September RBOB RBU9 ended up 3.44 cents, or 1.72
percent, at $2.0346 a gallon, trading from $1.9623 to $2.0533.

* NYMEX September heating oil HOU9 settled up 5.37 cents,
or 2.88 percent, at $1.9187 a gallon, trading from $1.8339 to
$1.9309.

* The September/September RBOB crack spread <0#RB-CL=R>
ended at $13.03, down from $14.82 on Tuesday. The
September/September heating oil crack spread <0#CL-HO=R> was at
$8.17, falling from $9.14 on Tuesday.

TECHNICALS

NYMEX crude 10-day/20-day moving average: $70.00/$69.07

Technical support/resistance:

NYMEX crude: $67.75/$70.00

NYMEX heating oil: $1.80/$1.9015

NYMEX RBOB: $1.9510/$2.0855

For a report on technicals, click on [ID:nLJ12865]

MARKET NEWS

* The EIA data showed crude stocks down 8.4 million barrels
last week, to 343.6 million barrels, against the
1.3-million-build forecast in a Reuters poll of analysts.
[EIA/S]

* Crude stocks at Cushing, Oklahoma, storage for oil traded
on the NYMEX, fell 300,000 barrels, to 33.3 million barrels.

* Distillate stocks dipped by 700,000 barrels to 161.6
million barrels against the forecast for a 600,000-barrel
increase.

* Gasoline stocks fell 2.1 million barrels to 209.8 million
barrels, larger than the forecast for a 1.1-million-barrel
drawdown.

* Refinery usage rose 0.5 percentage point, to 84 percent
of capacity. The forecast was for a 0.1 percentage point rise.

* The API said on Tuesday that crude oil stocks fell 6.1
million barrels last week, distillate stocks increased 1.5
million barrels and gasoline declined 847,000 barrels.

* The dollar was down [USD/]

* The National Hurricane Center said remnants of downgraded
Ana had a less than 30 percent of becoming a tropical cyclone
again during the next 48 hours. [ID:nN19456111]
(Reporting by Gene Ramos and Robert Gibbons; Editing by Lisa
Shumaker)