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Brent crude closed $2.80, or 3.9% higher, at $75.30 a barrel.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate settled up $2.78, or 4.1%, at
$71.34 after four days of declines that sent the contract to
lows last seen in late 2021.
The Brent benchmark finished the week with a decline of about
5.3%, while WTI plunged 7.1%, even after the rebound on Friday.
Both benchmarks were down for three weeks in a row for the first
time since November.
"Crude is trying to reverse the recent washout in prices
triggered by higher interest rates and recession fears mostly in
the banking sector," said Dennis Kissler, senior vice president
of trading at BOK Financial.
For some analysts, fundamentals in the physical market are
stronger than the futures market would indicate.
"Rather than underlying fundamentals, the selling frenzy over
the past week has been driven by worries about demand linked to
recession risks and the strain in the U.S. banking sector," said
PVM oil market analyst Stephen Brennock.
"The upshot is that there is a big disconnect between oil
balances and oil prices."
Commerzbank analysts noted oil demand concerns were overblown
and expect a price correction upward in coming weeks.
Equities, which often move in tandem with oil prices, also rose.
[MKTS/GLOB]
A better-than-expected jobs report helped ease some fears of an
imminent economic downturn, spurred in part by renewed banking
fears. Investors also broadly expect the Fed to pause rate hikes
at its June policy meeting.
In China, however, factory activity contracted unexpectedly in
April as orders fell and poor domestic demand dragged on the
sprawling manufacturing sector.
However, expectations of potential supply cuts at the next
meeting of the OPEC+ producer group in June have provided some
price support, said Kelvin Wong, a senior market analyst at
OANDA in Singapore.
U.S. oil rig count, an indicator of future output, fell by 3 to
588 this week, data from oil services firm Baker Hughes showed.
[RIG/U]
(Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar in Houston; Additional reporting
by Shadia Nasralla and Andrew Hayley in Beijing; Editing by Jan
Harvey, Alexander Smith, David Gregorio, Emelia Sithole-Matarise
and Jonathan Oatis)
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