Oil edges up on equities rebound, weak dollar

Oil prices rose slightly on Friday, touching eight-day highs before paring gains, as a rebound in the global equities market and a weak dollar supported crude's recovery from last week's slide. Brent crude (LCOc1) was up 48 cents, or 0.73 percent, at $64.81 per barrel by 1:53 p.m. EST (1853 GMT). "After such a sharp drop that we saw prior to Wednesday, perhaps a recovery was due," said Tony Headrick, an analyst at CHS Hedging LLC. "However, you look at rig counts like what we saw today with the number of U.S. oil rigs increasing by seven, that?s a point that should cap an extreme advance in prices," Headrick said.