UPDATE 3-Oil below $104 on demand worries, strong dollar

>

* Brent crude on course to end week little changed

* Evidence mounts of slower U.S. economic growth (Previous SINGAPORE, updates prices)

By Alex Lawler and Manash Goswami

LONDON, May 17 (Reuters) - Oil slipped on Friday, staying below $104 a barrel on concern about the strength of demand growth and as policymaker talk of the future removal of U.S. monetary stimulus boosted the dollar.

Three regional Federal Reserve officials called for the U.S. central bank to stop buying mortgage-backed bonds, leading to gains in the dollar. A stronger dollar makes dollar-denominated commodities more expensive for other currency holders and tends to weigh on oil and other risk assets.

Brent crude slipped 5 cents to $103.73 a barrel by 0825 GMT, and was on course to end the week little changed.

"economic growth (Previous SINGAPORE, updates prices)By Alex Lawler and Manash GoswamiLONDON, May 17 (Reuters) - Oil slipped on Friday, staying below $104 a barrel on concern about the strength of demand growth and as policymaker talk of the future removal of U.S"U.S. oil was down 11 cents at $95.05.

"The dollar will influence oil quite a bit over the next few sessions because at some point it will start to weaken as it has strengthened too much in recent days," said Tetsu Emori, a commodities sales manager at Astmax Investments in Tokyo.

"All U.S. economic indications in the last few days have been weak and that is raising doubts about demand."

On Thursday, data showed the U.S. economy showed signs of slowing in the second quarter, as well as a spike in new claims for jobless benefits last week.

Brent has risen from its low of $96.75 for the year touched on April 18. It is around $15 short of its 2013 peak of $119.17 reached on Feb.

8.

The spread between the U.S. benchmark and Brent CL-LCO1=R widened beyond $10 a barrel for the first time since May 7 in the previous session, and was at about $8 on Friday. It hit a 2013 low of $7.20 earlier this week.

Political tension in the Middle East, source of about a third of world oil supply, supported prices. Russia's foreign minister said Iran must take part in a proposed international conference to try to end Syria's civil war. (Editing by Alison Birrane)

Energy

• Tweet this
• Link this
• Share this
• Digg this
• Email
• Reprints