Summary Brent oil was 68 cents lower at $101.51 a barrel, while U.S. oil was down 71 cents at $92.90.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global equity markets eased and the dollar climbed off a three-week low on Friday after unexpectedly weak U.S. data on consumer spending and inflation curbed speculation of an early scale-back of economic stimulus by the Federal Reserve.
Wall Street opened lower, following declines in European equity markets, but stocks soon trimmed most of their losses after separate data showed business activity in the U.S. Midwest picked up in May.
U.S. government debt also reversed course and fell on a report showing the Institute for Supply Management-Chicago business barometer rose to 58.7 from 49 in April, handily beating economists expectations for a reading of only 50.
"We re in a goldilocks environment where the economy is recovering, but not so much that the Fed will pull the punch bowl away too quickly," said Kristina Hooper, head of portfolio strategies at Allianz Global Investors in New York.
European shares remained lower as EU statistics office Eurostat said unemployment in the euro zone reached a new high at 12.2 percent in April. With inflation well below the European Central Bank s target, pressure rose on EU leaders and the ECB for action to revive the bloc s sickly economy.
Wall Street also was helped by a Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan survey that showed greater optimism over the economic outlook and personal finances pushed U.S. consumer sentiment to its highest level in nearly six years in May.
A measure of global equity activity, MSCI s all-country world equity index, fell as much as 0.7 percent, though it then recovered somewhat and was down 0.5 percent, while the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 follow the same path and also was down 0.5 percent.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 8.65 points, or 0.06 percent, at 15,333.18. The Standard & Poor s 500 Index was down 0.74 point, or 0.04 percent, at
1,653.67. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 0.72 point, or 0.02 percent, at 3,490.57.
The euro fell to a session low of $1.2961 and was last at $1.2974, down 0.57 percent on the day. The dollar rose 0.16 percent to 100.88 Japanese yen.
Treasury prices resumed this month s tumble, with the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note down 11/32 in price to yield 2.1586 percent.
U.S. oil prices fell below $93 a barrel, extending losses after weak consumer spending data. Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to leave their output target unchanged, as expected, with little impact on markets as a result.
Brent oil was 68 cents lower at $101.51 a barrel, while U.S. oil was down 71 cents at $92.90 a barrel.
