UPDATE 5-Oil prices jump but India coronavirus cases weigh

*
* Coronavirus sweeps through India
* Biden says U.S. fuel shortages to end in days

(Updates prices, adds detail)
By Ahmad Ghaddar
LONDON, May 14 (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Friday,
reversing some of the previous day's sharp losses as stock
markets strengthened and the U.S. dollar slipped, though gains
were capped by the coronavirus situation in major oil consumer
India.
Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 were up $1.23, or 1.8%, at
$68.28 a barrel by 1349 GMT and West Texas Intermediate (WTI)
crude was up $1.12, or 1.8%, at $64.94.
The two contracts lost about 3% on Thursday.
Global equities rose and the dollar slipped on Friday after
U.S. Federal Reserve officials said there would be no imminent
move to tighten monetary policy in the world's biggest economy.
As oil is priced in dollars, a weaker greenback makes the
commodity cheaper for holders of other currencies, potentially
spurring demand.
The U.S. Commerce Department said April retail sales stalled
following a 10.7% surge in March, an upward revision from the
previously reported 9.7% increase. Oil prices have come under pressure this week from surging
coronavirus cases in India as well as worries that the highly
transmissible variant first detected there is spreading to other
countries.
India on Friday reported 343,144 new coronavirus cases,
taking its overall tally past the 24 million mark, while deaths
from COVID-19 rose by 4,000. " Brent's renewed failure to exceed $70 is likely to have
sparked selling by speculative market participants, especially
as operation of the Colonial Pipeline is being ramped up again
in the U.S.," Commerzbank said.
U.S. President Joe Biden reassured motorists that fuel
supplies should start returning to normal this weekend, even as
more filling stations ran out of gasoline across the Southeast
nearly a week after a cyber attack forced a shutdown at the
nation's main fuel pipeline. Colonial Pipeline said late on Thursday that it had
restarted its entire pipeline system and had begun deliveries in
all of its markets.
The U.S. capital was running out of gasoline on Friday
despite the pipeline restart. Gas station outages in Washington, D.C., climbed to 87%,
from 79% the day before, tracking firm GasBuddy said.