Oil rallies to two-week high

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Oil prices surged to a two-week high Friday, helped in large part by a weaker dollar and a rally on Wall Street.

Crude for June delivery settled up $1.93, or 3.9%, to $51.55 a barrel.

Oil has not settled above $51 a barrel since April 9, when it settled at $52.24 a barrel.

For the last month and a half, oil prices have mostly hovered around the $50 a barrel level, with little impetus to move sharply in any one direction.

Crude has been taking its cue from equities, which have been used as a gauge of the economy. Stocks were rallying Friday afternoon on the back of better-than-expected corporate results and bets that the worst is over for the economy.

Also lending support to oil prices Friday was a weaker dollar, since crude is traded in U.S. currency. The 16-nation euro rallied more than 1% against the dollar and the dollar lost almost 1% against the Japanese yen.

The rally comes despite indications few signs that demand is returning. According to Platts, an energy information service, U.S. petroleum inventories currently stand at a 31-month high of 1.074 billion barrels.

The national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline fell Friday, snapping a six day run-up. A gallon cost $2.059, down from the previous day's $2.063, according to survey results released Wednesday by motorist group AAA. That's down $2.055, or nearly 49%, from the record high price of $4.114 last July.