LONDON: Oil fell more than 2 percent to below $86 a barrel on Friday, retreating from a 25-month high reached in the previous session, as concern about Irish debt spurred a broad retreat from riskier assets. Attention in the oil market refocused on risk aversion and macroeconomic concerns at the end of a week when prices were sent higher by oil's fundamentals – Chinese demand at a record and US inventories plunging. US crude was down $2.05 a barrel at $85.76 as of 1025 GMT, after touching an intra-day peak of $88.63 on Thursday, the highest since October 2008. ICE Brent slid $1.63 to $87.18. "This price slump can be explained by a general weakness of commodity prices triggered by the stronger US dollar and rumors of an imminent interest rate hike in China," said Carsten Fritsch, analyst at Commerzbank. "Consequently, we are likely to be seeing profit taking by short-term oriented investors primarily." The euro fell broadly on Friday, hitting a two-month low versus the Japanese yen and a six-week low versus the dollar on worries over Ireland's public finances and as positions in riskier assets were pared back. European equities lost ground in early trade, gold fell and copper declined. Asian stocks were broadly lower, led by a 5 percent drop in the Shanghai composite index on talk of interest rate increases. The International Energy Agency, an adviser to 28 industrialized countries, on Friday predicted a slowdown in the rate of growth in global oil demand next year, while raising its forecast for 2010. Concerns about Ireland overshadowed a Group of 20 leaders' summit in Seoul, where a breakthrough on resolving global economic imbalances amid incongruent policies looked unattainable. Oil had rallied for most of the past two weeks, partly on a plan by the US Federal Reserve to buy $600 billion in Treasury bonds to help speed economic growth. –Additional reporting by Alejandro Barbajosa.
