* Oil slips after early gains, hit by equities pullback
* Weaker U.S. dollar helped boost oil early
* Coming up: API oil data 4:30 p.m. EDT Wednesday
(Updates to close, adds details, background)
By Brian Ellsworth
NEW YORK, July 6 (Reuters) - U.S. oil prices fell for a
sixth straight session on Tuesday, ending near a one-month low
hit overnight, before a bounce tied to a stock market recovery,
as the crude and equity markets gyrated in lock-step.
"The S&P 500 fell back from its highs and that caused crude
to pull back and sell stops were triggered below $73 a barrel,"
said Robert Yawger, senior vice president, energy futures at MF
Global in New York
U.S. crude for August delivery <CLc1> fell 16 cents, or
0.22 percent, to close at $71.98 a barrel. It retreated from a
$73.86 intraday peak, having earlier touched $71.09, the lowest
price since June 8.
That decline came despite a decline in the dollar against a
basket of currencies, which usually boosts crude by making
prices for buyers using other denominations more attractive.
ICE Brent crude for August <LCOc1> fell 2 cents to $71.45 a
barrel.
Global stocks retraced earlier gains but still closed up in
the session, bouncing from six- and seven-week lows.
[]
MSCI's all-country world stock index <.MIWD00000PUS> rose
1.4 percent.
"(It's) a relatively weak performance on the part of crude
oil and it does point to weak underlying fundamentals," said
Tim Evans, energy analyst for Citi Futures Perspective.
"Some of the data we've seen in terms of unemployment and
consumer sentiment is making us question how strong the
consumer is."
The Dow Jones industrial average <> also reversed
midday gains, only to steady, up 0.08 percent, in late trade.
U.S. markets reopened on Tuesday after an Independence Day
holiday and stocks rose broadly following five days of losses.
[] Stocks were lifted by a report showing the services sector
grew for the sixth month in a row in June and on signs of
strength in Europe's banking system supported U.S. equities.
But the rate of growth in the U.S. non-manufacturing
sector slowed more than expected and hit its lowest since
February, according to the report from the Institute for Supply
Management. []
TRYING TO REBOUND FROM SWOON
Oil prices attempted to rebound on Tuesday after weak U.S.
employment numbers and disappointing manufacturing data from
the United States and China helped knock oil prices down 8.5
percent the previous week.
"While we've seen prices bounce from the recent lows, the
move back up is still treacherous as there is still no clear
sign yet that the bottom in the current market has been
reached," said Phil Flynn, analyst at PFGBest Research in
Chicago.
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Poll: Outlook for global supply and demand []
Reuters Insider: http://link.reuters.com/vud95m
Graphic: performance across commodity markets
http://link.reuters.com/hun72k
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After Hurricane Alex swept into Mexico last week, oil
traders on Tuesday eyed a low pressure system that the U.S.
National Hurricane Center said had a 30 percent chance of
developing into a tropical depression as it moves northwest
toward Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. []
The weekly oil inventory report from the American Petroleum
Institute will be delayed to Wednesday due to Monday's U.S.
holiday and government statistics from the Energy Information
Administration will be published on Thursday.
(Additional reporting by Gene Ramos and Robert Gibbons in New
York, Emma Farge in London and Alejandro Barbajosa in
Singapore; Editing by Alden Bentley)
