(Recasts, updates prices, market activity; new dateline,
previously LONDON)
NEW YORK, June 12 (Reuters) - Oil prices slipped on
Thursday after stronger-than-expected U.S. retail sales data
boosted the dollar.
U.S. crude <CLc1> fell 79 cents to $135.59 a barrel by 1:41
p.m. EDT (1741 GMT) following a $5 surge in prices on
Wednesday, while London Brent crude <LCOc1> dropped 7 cents to
$134.95 a barrel.
"It's all about the dollar," said Nauman Barakat, senior
vice president at Macquarie Futures USA.
The slumping dollar has pushed investors into commodities
this year as a hedge against inflation and the weak greenback.
The dollar gained on Thursday after a government report showed
total sales at U.S. retailers rose 1 percent in May -- twice as
much as expected. [].
Oil's losses also came amid news that U.S. regulators are
seeking a deal with their counterparts in the United Kingdom to
impose position limits on U.S. crude contracts traded on the
ICE Futures Europe exchange. []
The move could shake some speculators out of the market,
analysts said.
"It is sending the message that the CFTC will be taking
action, this is probably the first of many steps they are going
to implement. It has implications for larger institutional
traders, pension funds, hedge funds that have been in the oil
markets," said Rob Kurzatkowski, futures analyst for
optionsXpress in Chicago.
Oil dipped as low as $131.55 before trimming losses on news
Nigeria's senior oil workers' union renewed a strike threat,
raising supply worries. []
Oil prices have jumped roughly 40 percent since the start
of this year, hitting an all-time high above $139 last week.
Commodities markets have boomed over the past six years as
demand from emerging economies tests supply growth.
Oil consuming and producing nations, often at odds over
they cause of the spike in prices, will meet in OPEC kingpin
Saudi Arabia on June 22 to seek a solution to rising energy
costs that have sparked riots across the globe.
U.S. officials have blamed the surge in prices on
fundamentals, and have called on OPEC to ramp up output to help
cool down markets.
But OPEC members blame speculators for high prices and
insist they can do nothing to lower prices.
"The market fundamentals are not affecting prices. The
problem is the economic crisis in the United States which led
to a fall in the dollar's value, and threats against Iran which
increased geopolitical tensions," OPEC President Chakib Khelil
said, according to Algerian state news agency APS.
"Supply at present exceeds demand, and there is a surplus
of around 500,000 barrels per day," Khelil said, adding that
OPEC would hold its scheduled meeting on Sept. 9 to "evaluate
the market and take decisions to stabilise it."
(Reporting by Matthew Robinson, Robert Gibbons, and Gene Rmos
in New York; Luke Pachymuthu in Singapore; Barbara Lewsi and
Ikuko Kao in London; Editing by David Gregorio)
