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New York - Oil prices rose on Friday in continued volatile trading as weak consumer sentiment data curbed an earlier boost from stronger equities markets and a report that US retail sales rose in July.
US consumer sentiment fell sharply in early August, to the lowest index level since 1980, even though retail sales posted their biggest gains in three months in July, separate reports showed.
The consumer gloom caused both US and European equities markets to pare gains.
Equities had received a boost earlier when a ban on short-selling financial stocks in four European countries including France took effect on Friday, a coordinated attempt to restore confidence in a market hit by rumors and higher borrowing costs.
"Oil is following the stock markets and they pared gains on the consumer data but have stabilized from earlier in the week and the retail sales rise helped and people are keeping an eye on the threat of storms," said Dan Flynn, analyst at PFGBest Research in Chicago.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center tracked four low-pressure systems in the Atlantic, and said three have a medium chance of forming a tropical cyclone in the next 48 hours.
ICE Brent crude for September rose 35 cents to $108.37 a barrel by 11:09 a.m. EDT (1509 GMT), having bounced from a $106.86 low and reached $109.16.
US September crude rose 50 cents to $86.22 a barrel, having already swung from $84.02 to $87.37.
Trading volumes for Brent and US crude topped 350 000 lots traded already, putting Brent already less than 100 000 lots away from surpassing its 30-day average.
