Oil prices slip after strong rallies

Global oil prices fell modestly on Friday after strong rallies this week in a bout of profit-taking ahead of the weekend. New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) light sweet crude for August, closed at $96.56 a barrel, down 49 cents from Thursday. In London trade, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in August shed 66 cents to settle at $102.16 a barrel. The New York benchmark WTI contract fell sharply in late-session trade as traders booked profits from solid gains piled up over the past four sessions, Matt Smith of Schneider Electric said. "We had a very strong rebound this week given what we had last week so it is fairly natural to see some profit taking, and people acted at the last minute to do that," Smith said. Part of the decline was due to a strengthening dollar, he said. A stronger US unit makes dollar-priced crude oil less attractive to investors using weaker currencies. The publication of a mixed batch of US economic indicators also weighed on market sentiment. The University of Michigan's US consumer sentiment index was revised higher in June, while a Chicago regional manufacturing activity report for June was weaker than expected.