US oil futures headed towards $108 a barrel on Monday, joining gains across commodities and equities markets. Light sweet crude for May delivery rose $1.31 cents to $107.54 a barrel by 1035 GMT after leaping $2.40 a barrel on Friday, recouping all of the week’s earlier losses. London Brent crude rose 85 cents to $105.73. Oil rose even as the dollar rallied on Monday, joining buoyant equity and credit markets in shrugging off last week’s soft US job data as investors took heart from central bank efforts to alleviate the global credit crunch.

“The key driver will be continued financial investors inflows into oil,” said Societe Generale in a report, reasserting its $107.50 forecast for average oil prices in the second quarter. “On balance, we take comfort in the fact that front-month crude prices appear to have found a floor at $100, and appear to be trending sideways.” Analysts said fundamentals also supported prices. “The biggest surprises could be on the supply side. Non-Opec supply is just not going up this year,” Paul Horsnell, oil analyst at Barclays Capital in London.