Oil up over $3 at $112 on bargain hunting

LONDON, May 9 (Reuters): Oil rebounded by more than $3 Monday, helped by a weaker dollar as the euro strengthened and bargain hunting by traders and investors after Brent crude lost over $16 last week. At 1000 GMT Brent crude for June was up by $3.40 to $112.53 a barrel after hitting an intraday high of $112.86. US crude rose by $2.87 to $100.05, but at one point was up over $3 to $100.32. "It's a combination of a slightly weaker US dollar, rising equity markets in Asia and bargain-hunting," said Carsten Fritsch, an analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt. "Some market participants consider the lower price levels after the sharp drop Thursday a good buying opportunity." The Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, a global benchmark for commodities prices, last week staged its biggest weekly drop since late 2008, down nine per cent. "We went through a pretty hefty sell-off for all markets," said Tony Machacek, an oil trader at Bache Commodities. "It smacked of funds getting sell-stops triggered. Now that long liquidation has been done, everything seems to be stabilising." Rob Montefusco, an oil trader at Sucden Financial, said encouraging non-farm pay-roll numbers from the US Friday had helped. "We were spooked out by Trichet's comments last week but the euro's recovered now," he added. The euro had sold off due to an apparent delay in European Central Bank tightening when President Jean-Claude Trichet failed to use the code words "strong vigilance," while the dollar strengthened.