Oil rose for a sixth straight session towards $76 a barrel on Thursday, touching its highest price in a year after U.S. industry data showed a modest fall in crude stockpiles. 

Further support for crude came as the Dow Jones industrial average rose above 10,000 points for the first time in a year on Wednesday, while the dollar slumped to a fresh 14-month low against a basket of currencies. 

Traders will look to weekly jobless claims and U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) inventory data later in the trading session for confirmation that fuel demand? in the world's largest economy is rising. 

U.S. light, sweet crude ($75.66) for November delivery rose, after climbing as high as $75.96 earlier in electronic trading, its highest since October 2008. 

London Brent crude ($74.35) was up. 

Crude, up 1.8 percent on the year, is now in positive territory on a year-on-year basis for the first time since Oct. 10, 2008. The six straight days of gains mark its longest winning streak since July. 

Slumping fuel demand in the United States and other developed countries has sent crude off record highs above $147 a barrel last year. 

Poor Fundamentals  

Analysts at JBC Energy in Vienna said in a note to clients: "there is currently no fundamental reason supporting a price rise and the path back to $100 per barrel will be a long and protracted one."  

"Poor oil fundamentals, including 6 million b/d of OPEC spare capacity, a massive middle distillates stock surplus and terrible refining margins will keep the upside potential in check," JBE Energy analysts wrote. 

U.S. crude stocks fell 172,000 barrels last week against expectations of a 700,000 barrel rise, according to data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Wednesday. 

Futures and Pre-Market  

The EIA is due to release its report at 4 pm London time. U.S. weekly jobless claims due at 1:30 pm will shed more light on the pace of economic recovery. 

A Reuter’s poll of economists forecast 525,000 new filings compared with 521,000 in the prior week.