Mexico stocks slip on worries of oil's toll on U.S.

MEXICO CITY, July 4 (Reuters) - Mexican stocks fell on Friday as steadying oil prices failed to abate concerns that more costly fuel could hobble the economy in the United States, Mexico's main trading partner.

The benchmark IPC stock index .MXX dipped 0.19 percent to a fresh four-month low at 28,410 points, marking its fourth straight day of losses. Trading volume was low volume with U.S. markets closed for the Independence Day holiday.

The peso <MXN=>MEX01 firmed 0.09 percent to 10.359 per dollar.

U.S. light crude CLc1 retreated to $144.42 a barrel after hitting a record above $145 a barrel on Thursday. But the pullback provided little comfort to investors worried that the 50 percent rise in crude prices this year will push American consumers to spend less on other goods.

"It's not the price today that's the worry, but what is ahead. We are talking about prices of $200 per barrel in a not-so-distant future," one trader in Mexico City said.

A prolonged slowdown in the United States, where growth has weakened amid a housing downturn and a credit crunch, would likely drag on the economy in Mexico, which sends more than 80 percent of its exports to its northern neighbor.

Data released on Thursday showed that Mexico's consumer confidence index plunged to its lowest level in six years in June as households wrestled with a jump in food inflation and worried that the country's economy would slow.

In debt trading, the government's benchmark 10-year peso bond <MX10YT=RR> was flat with a price of 91.134 and a yield of 9.16 percent.

In stock trading, shares of America Movil (AMXL.MX: Quote, Profile, Research), Latin America's biggest cell phone operator, slipped 0.49 percent to 26.54 pesos.