UPDATE 8-Oil falls more than 1% as virus spreads in Middle East and Europe

* Asia reports hundreds of new coronavirus cases
* U.S. crude stocks rise, product inventories drop -EIA
* OPEC+ due to meet over March 5-6

(New throughout, updates prices, market activity and comments)
By Laila Kearney
NEW YORK, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell more than 1% on
Wednesday after hundreds of new coronavirus cases reported in
Asia, Europe and the Middle East stoked fears that energy demand
would decline, while crude oil inventories in the United States
grew.
Brent crude LCOc1 was down 94 cents, or 1.7%, to $54.01 a
barrel by 12:09 p.m. EST (1709 GMT), while U.S. West Texas
Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 shed 53 cents, or 1.1%, $49.37 a
barrel.
"It's still all about the virus here," said Bob Yawger,
director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York. "It's hard to
come up with any type of scenario where demand increases over
the next couple months."
Prices briefly turned positive after the U.S. government
reported a drop in gasoline inventories last week. Crude stocks
grew by 452,000 barrels to 443.3 million barrels, the Energy
Information Administration said, which was less than the
2-million-barrel rise analysts had expected. EIA/S
Goldman Sachs cut its 2020 oil demand growth forecast to
600,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 1.2 million bpd, and lowered
its Brent forecast to $60 a barrel from $63. "We see oil prices improving through the year, assuming
demand begins to normalise" in the second half, it said.
Authorities around the world battled to prevent the spread
of coronavirus, which has now been found in about 30 countries.
Gains on Wall Street led stocks across the globe
higher, a rebound from a sharp selloff linked to coronavirus
worries, but other financial markets felt nagging pressure.
MKTS/GLOB
The World Health Organization's (WHO) chief said while the
sudden rise in novel coronavirus cases was "deeply concerning",
the virus could still be contained and did not amount to a
pandemic.
President Donald Trump said he will hold a news conference
on the coronavirus at 6 p.m. (2300 GMT).
Germany's economy is nearing stagnation due to the outbreak,
the DIW economic institute said on Wednesday. The market was also watching for possible deeper output cuts
by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its
allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+. OPEC+ are due to meet in Vienna over March 5-6.
"Yet there is no guarantee that buyers will emerge out of
the woodwork even if OPEC+ further tightens the oil spigots,"
said Stephen Brennock of oil broker PVM.
The International Energy Agency's (IEA) outlook on global
oil demand growth has fallen to its lowest level in a decade,
IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said on Tuesday. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Coronavirus spreads outside of China png https://tmsnrt.rs/38V85hO
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