* Wall Street surges in late-day rally as sentiment builds
* Safe-haven bonds rally on poor U.S. retail sales
* Dollar up vs yen on consumer data; euro rally fizzles
* Oil slips below $74 after U.S. retail sales data
(Adds close of U.S. markets)
By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, June 11 (Reuters) - World stocks and the dollar
rose on Friday after a surprisingly strong reading of U.S.
consumer sentiment buoyed recovery prospects, even as an
unexpected drop in U.S. retail sales damped risk appetite.
Wall Street, which had traded lower for much of the
session, rose in a late-day rally, capping a volatile week in
which stocks slid close to a seven-month low. But the Dow and
S&P 500 ended up more than 2 percent for the week.
While analysts said the underlying trend of steadily rising
consumer spending was intact, a 1.2 percent drop in U.S. retail
sales in May reported by the Commerce Department on Friday sent
oil prices lower and lifted the price of safe-haven bonds.
Gold gained for a third straight week as recovery concerns
firmly underpinned prices. But copper posted its largest weekly
gain since early April on rising demand expectations from the
United States and China, the world's two largest consumers.
Investors were torn between two currents: those who see
little risk of the U.S. economy slipping back into recession
and those who fear a slowdown after a brief recovery.
"We have placed a double-dip in the U.S. for a long time at
15 percent and that is still where we are. The most likely
scenario is the economy continues to grow at a 3 percent pace,"
said Michael Strauss, chief economist at Commonfund in Wilton,
Connecticut.
Still, the unexpected drop in U.S. retail sales heightened
fears generated by Europe's sovereign debt crisis. For more see
[].
"Without that spending, what is going to drive economic
activity?" said Kevin Mahn, chief investment officer at Hennion
& Walsh Inc in Parsippany, New Jersey.
MSCI's all-country world equity index <.MIWD00000PUS> was
up 0.6 percent, while the pan-European FTSEurofirst <>
closed up 0.5 percent to 1,018.87 points.
The Dow Jones industrial average <> closed up 38.54
points, or 0.38 percent, to 10,211.07. The Standard & Poor's
500 Index <.SPX> rose 4.76 points, or 0.44 percent, to
1,091.60. The Nasdaq Composite Index <> added 24.89
points, or 1.12 percent, to 2,243.60.
For the week, the Dow rose 2.8 percent, the S&P gained 2.5
percent and the Nasdaq advanced 1.1 percent.
Wall Street threw off worries over the disappointing retail
sales late in the day as the focus turned to a strong forecast
from chip maker National Semiconductor Corp <NSM.N> .
Even so, the volume was lackluster, indicating little
conviction that the advance will continue next week.
The dollar rose against the yen and euro on the
better-than-expected rise in the Thomson Reuters/University of
Michigan's Surveys of Consumers.
Lingering worries about euro zone debt and technical
barriers also contributed to the euro's decline, ending a
three-day winning streak that drove it as high as $1.2152.
The dollar was up 0.3 percent at 91.67 yen <JPY=> in late
trading. The euro fell 0.2 percent to $1.2087 <EUR=>, its first
daily decline since Monday, when it hit $1.1876, its lowest
level since 2006. The euro edged up to 110.86 yen <EURJPY=>.
U.S. oil prices fell more than 2 percent on the U.S. retail
sales drop and an easing of industrial output in China, which
revived concerns about oil demand. []
Friday's slide snapped a three-day string of higher closes,
but for the week oil prices still managed a 3.17 percent gain.
"The retail sales number put a damper on things and the
report on Chinese inflation had already helped pull oil back,"
said Robert Yawger, senior vice president, energy futures at MF
Global in New York.
Chinese inflation quickened to a 19-month high in May, and
some analysts said China needs to raise interest rates and let
the yuan strengthen. China is the world's second biggest oil
consumer. []
U.S. crude for July <CLc1> fell $1.70, or 2.25 percent, to
settle at $73.84 a barrel, trading from $73.26 to $75.64.
ICE Brent <LC0c1> fell 94 cents to settle at $74.35, but
ended up 4.6 percent on the week.
Benchmark U.S. Treasury yields ended marginally higher on
the week after retracing some of Thursday's spike due to the
stock rally. The 10-year note yield <US10YT=RR> finished at
3.23 percent, the middle of a 3 percent to 3.50 percent trading
range which analysts said would hold through the summer.
U.S. gold futures for August delivery <GCQ0> settled up $8
at $1,230.20 an ounce.
Earlier in Asia, the MSCI index of Asia Pacific ex-Japan
stocks <.MIAPJ0000PUS> rose nearly 1.7 percent. Japan's Nikkei
average <> climbed 1.7 percent, helped by a halt in the
yen's advance against the euro <EURJPY=R>.
(Reporting by Steven C. Johnson and Burton Frierson in New
York; Emma Farge, George Matlock, Jan Harvey and Michael Taylor
in London and Lucia Mutikani in Washington; writing by Herbert
Lash; Editing by Leslie Adler)
