March 16 Oil prices clawed back some ground on Thursday after sliding to 15month lows in the previous session as markets calmed somewhat after Credit Suisse was thrown a financial lifeline by Swiss regulators.

But, battered by fears of growing stress on banks worldwide, market sentiment remained fragile with both benchmarks giving up some early Thursday gains that saw Brent climb by more than 1.

As of 0742 GMT, Brent crude futures were up 60 cents or 0.8 to 74.29 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude futures WTI rose 47 cents or 0.7 to 68.08 a barrel.

On Wednesday, the third straight day of declines, U.S. crude fell below 70 a barrel for the first time since Dec. 20, 2021.

Brent has lost nearly 10 since Friday39;s close, while U.S. crude is down about 11.

Considering this is really macrodriven rather than oil fundamentalsdriven, WTI could flirt with the idea of bottoming out at 60. But I don39;t really see a fullblown collapse, said Viktor Katona, lead crude analyst at data analytics firm Kpler.

Credit Suisse said on Thursday it would borrow up to 54 billion from the Swiss central bank to shore up its liquidity and investor confidence after a slump in its shares intensified fears about a global financial crisis.

Market sentiment deteriorated as the banking crisis expanded to Europe from the U.S…The future trend will depend on the level of market angst even if fundamentals are not necessarily showing much in the way of bearish signs, analysts from Haitong…