WTI crude oil prices continue their climb higher from the previous session into early trading on Friday as the optimism surrounding the rollout of vaccines supports the risk-on sentiment, raising hopes for recovery in oil demand. At the time of writing, WTI crude oil is trading at around $46.88 per barrel.

On Thursday, WTI crude oil registered nearly 3% gains as encouraging reports of vaccine trials, approvals and rollouts gave markets a reason to cheer, despite the ongoing spike in cases worldwide. Traders are hopeful that the rollout of a vaccine could successfully contain the pandemic and allow the global economy to rebound, which in turn would help improve the demand for oil around the world.

So far, Britain has already begun administering the vaccination while Canada has approved the vaccine and will start its rollout next week. In the US, a panel of advisors to the FDA have voted in favor of granting emergency authorization to Pfizer’s vaccine, getting the world’s worst affected nation one step closer to the rollout.

Crude oil continues to make gains for the sixth consecutive week despite both the API and the EIA reporting an unexpected build in crude inventories in the US. Even though demand remains weak and could get weaker soon on the back of the rising cases and ensuing lockdowns, markets are pinning their hopes on the vaccines to turn things around.