(London) Oil prices continued to rise on Friday as investors regained their appetite for risky assets, reassured about the resilience of the banking sector after the turmoil earlier in the week.

By 6:30 a.m. EST, a barrel of Brent North Sea crude for May delivery was up 1.43% to $75.77.

Its American equivalent, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), for delivery in April, took 1.73%, to 69.53 dollars.

Prices have rebounded since Thursday, “optimism about the recovery of Chinese demand and the weakness of the dollar having encouraged investors to take new positions”, explains John Plassard, of Mirabaud.

Eleven major American banks have chosen Thursday to come together to the rescue of the establishment in difficulty First Republic and thus prevent it from becoming the next domino to fall after three bankruptcies in a row.

This is enough to reassure the markets after the strong turbulence in the global banking sector at the start of the week, reviving the appetite for risk among investors, who are thus once again turning to oil and abandoning safe havens such as the dollar.

Since oil is denominated in dollars, the weakness of the greenback also benefits crude oil, by increasing the purchasing power of investors using foreign currencies.

But while prices are picking up, crude remains down sharply on the week: Brent has fallen more than 8.5% and WTI more than 9.5% since last Friday’s close.

They had both plunged Wednesday to their lowest price since December 2021.