FOREX-Bernanke comments, oil price slide boost dollar

(Recasts; updates prices, changes byline)

* Dollar up on Bernanke's comments, oil prices slide

* Bernanke says may keep Fed's emergency lending open

* U.S. stocks rally on oil retreat, boosting dollar

By Lucia Mutikani

NEW YORK, July 8 (Reuters) - The dollar rose on Tuesday as the Federal Reserve's willingness to keep its emergency lending facility open into 2009 for some Wall Street firms calmed fresh credit concerns and encouraged investors to snap up U.S. stocks.

A sharp drop in New York crude oil futures, as well as comments by a top Fed policy-maker that it made "eminent sense" to raise U.S. interest rates as risks to the world's largest economy ebbed, also supported the greenback, analysts said.

"Bernanke's comments should take some pressure off from the financially strapped Wall Street, they helped stocks early on. The lower oil price is the other part of the story helping the dollar," said Paresh Upadhyaya, portfolio manager at Putnam Investments in Boston.

Bernanke's remarks came on the heels of renewed credit worries sparked by a Lehman Brothers report that an accounting change could force Fannie Mae (FNM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Freddie Mac (FRE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) to raise a combined $75 billion in capital.