Oil prices mixed near two-month highs as dollar slips

Oil futures tilted lower in Asian trade with US crude off March 24 highs, while Brent declined from March 28 highs, as the dollar index retreated from December 2002 highs. 

As of 06:34 GMT, US crude futures due in June rose 0.11% to $113.99 a barrel, while Brent July futures shed 0.05% to $114.23 a barrel.

The dollar index slipped 0.11% to 104.06, after closing down at 104.19 yesterday. 

From the US, retail sales are expected up 1%, while core sales are expected up 0.4%, slowing down from 1.1% in March. 

US industrial production is expected up 0.4%, compared to a 0.9% rise in March, while the energy utilization rate is expected up to 78.5%. 

An index tracking US house building is expected to fall to 75 in May from 77. 

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last week that cutting down inflation to the targets of 2% will case some pain to the economy, but it's a necessary step, to keep hiking rates throughout the next two years to stabilize the economy.

Goldman Sachs analysts have cut estimates for US GDP growth this year to 2.4%, and next year to 1.6% due to the ongoing inflationary pressures.

Analysts are also taking into account the rapid pace of rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, expected throughout the year.

The Chinese government admitted that under pressure from the latest Covid 19 wave, economic performance has suffered in the short term.

Latest World Health Organization data showed Covid 19 infections are up to 519.65 million, with the death toll at 6.266 million.

Baker Hughes data last week showed US oil rigs rose by 6 rigs to 563 rigs, the highest since March 2020, and it's the eighth weekly increase in a row.

US output fell for the first time since late January, by 100 thousand bpd to 11.8 million bpd away from May 2020 highs, while still down 1.3 million bpd, or 11% from a record high at 13.1 million bpd, reached in March 2020.