Oil prices continued to rise as the US market opened on Monday, with the US crude extending its gains for the second straight day, while Brent on track for its first daily gain out of 4 days, on hopes over the global demand recovery, which offset the impact of rising US drilling activity.

US crude rose 1.2% to $ 52.79 a barrel, after opening at $52.17, and hit a low of $51.66, and Brent crude rose 1.5% to $ 55.84 a barrel, after opening at $55.02, and hit a low of $54.63.

US crude yesterday rose 0.2% yesterday, while Brent crude futures fell 0.6% and posted the third straight daily loss.

Oil prices gained 7.5% during January, the third monthly gain in a row, after the OPEC-Plus collation decided to increase output by only 500,000 barrels, instead of the 2 million barrels increase that was agreed upon starting this year, which came in addition to Saudi Arabia’s pledge to voluntary cut its oil production.

These gains are also based on hopes about rising Asian demand, as Asia is the largest fuel-consumer in the world, as most of the major Asian countries depend on oil imports due to their weak production levels.

While oil prices rose today thanks to hopes about the global demand for fuel, as more Covid-19 vaccines were proven successful in trials, while infections declined in some countries.

Energy experts projected that oil demand will rise as more of the world’s population get their shots of Covid-19 vaccine.

Saudi Arabia announced a voluntary output cut of about one million barrels per day during February and March to balance the market.

Baker Hughes revealed on Friday that the US drilling and exploration rigs rose 6 rigs last week, the tenth straight weekly increase.

The total operating rigs rose to 295, the highest level since the week ending May 1, 2020.

The increase in the US drilling activity boosted the US production by more than 47% since mid-2016 to a total of 13.1 million barrels per day in March 2020, and held recently around 11 million bpd due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the US is still the world's largest oil producer.

European stocks opened higher on in early trading on Monday, and rebounded from a 5-week low, as positive news about the Covid-19 vaccines lifted the market up, especially the mining sector as metals and commodity prices soared today.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 1.5% as of 11:35 GMT, after it closed lower by 1.9% on Friday and hit a 5-week low of 394.40 points.

The index lost more than 3% during last week, due to the investors' risk aversion after a massive sell-off wave in Wall Street.

The mining and basic materials sector saw the largest gains in Europe today, rising around 3%, as metals and commodity prices soared in global markets.

The European Union and AstraZeneca agreed after some tensions to provide the area with the promised quantities of the Covid-19 vaccine.

S&P 500 futures rose 1.3%, after the index closed lower by 1.9% on Friday at Wall Street on profit-taking from record gains.

Back to Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 index rose 1.7%, France's CAC 40 rose 1.4%, the UK's FTSE 100 added 1.5%, and Germany DAX index rose 1.5%.

Gold prices rose on Monday, to head for the second straight daily gain on strong safe-haven demand, but the firm US dollar is curbing today's gains.

Gold prices rose 1.3% to $1,871.81 an ounce, after opening at $1,848.42, and hit a low of $1,849.07.

The yellow metal gained 0.3% on Friday, its first daily gain as investors closed their positions to end the month.

However, gold prices lost 2.5% during January, and posted the fifth monthly loss out of 6 months, due to firm US dollar.

Gold prices rose today thanks to strong demand for precious metals as safe havens, especially silver, which jumped around 15%, and hit its 6-month high at $30.10 an ounce.

This came as some retail investors on online forums urged people to buy silver-backed ETFs and raise its price.

Following silver's rally, the gold-silver ratio -which represents the number of ounces of silver it takes to buy a single ounce of gold- fell to its lowest level since 2014.

The dollar index rose more than 0.4% today, extending its gains for the second straight day and hit its 2-week high of 90.92 points.

The US dollar is shining as the best alternative investment due to investors' risk aversion, amid growing bets of a broad sell-off wave in Wall Street and doubts about Joe Biden's Covid-19 stimulus plan.

Gold stocks at the SPDR ETF fell 4.67 metric tonnes on Friday, with the total at the lowest level since June 19 at 1,160.13 MT.

Oil prices rose on Monday, with the US crude extending its gains for the second straight day, while Brent on track for its first daily gain out of 4 days, on hopes over the global demand recovery, which offset the impact of rising US drilling activity.

US crude rose 1.0% to $52.69 a barrel, after opening at $52.17, and hit a low of $51.66, and Brent crude rose 1.2% to $55.68 a barrel, after opening at $55.02, and hit a low of $54.63.

US crude yesterday rose 0.2% yesterday, while Brent crude futures fell 0.6% and posted the third straight daily loss.

Oil prices gained 7.5% during January, the third monthly gain in a row, after the OPEC-Plus collation decided to increase output by only 500,000 barrels, instead of the 2 million barrels increase that was agreed upon starting this year, which came in addition to Saudi Arabia’s pledge to voluntary cut its oil production.

These gains are also based on hopes about rising Asian demand, as Asia is the largest fuel-consumer in the world, as most of the major Asian countries depend on oil imports due to their weak production levels.

While oil prices rose today thanks to hopes about the global demand for fuel, as more Covid-19 vaccines were proven successful in trials, while infections declined in some countries.

Energy experts projected that oil demand will rise as more of the world’s population get their shots of Covid-19 vaccine.

Saudi Arabia announced a voluntary output cut of about one million barrels per day during February and March to balance the market.

Baker Hughes revealed on Friday that the US drilling and exploration rigs rose 6 rigs last week, the tenth straight weekly increase.

The total operating rigs rose to 295, the highest level since the week ending May 1, 2020.

The increase in the US drilling activity boosted the US production by more than 47% since mid-2016 to a total of 13.1 million barrels per day in March 2020, and held recently around 11 million bpd due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the US is still the world's largest oil producer.