After a difficult start to the week, oil prices rebounded slightly. The week was marked by the resumption of the number of contaminations around the world, the prospect of possible new confinements dampening the enthusiasm of the oil market.

After a fall in prices on Wednesday which had caused the price of a barrel to lose more than 2 dollars, a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in October gained 91 cents or 1.29% to 71.39 dollars in London. In New York, the US barrel of WTI for September rose 94 cents or 1.38% to $69.09 from the previous day's close. Prices rose on Thursday in the wake of a reassuring US weekly employment indicator for activity in the world's largest economy, while Wall Street was on the rise. Since the start of the week, Brent has taken a nose dive by 4.29% and WTI by 4.88%. On average, more than 600,000 daily cases have been detected worldwide in the past seven days, an increase of 68% compared to the low reached in mid-June (360,000 new cases per day) mainly attributable to the spread of the Delta variant to the increased contagiousness. While the world's two largest consumers, the United States and China, are among the countries where the number of cases is increasing, investors fear that new confinements will be imposed, with direct consequences for fuel demand.