Neutralized by rising US inventories, oil prices eased on Friday, ending a string of strong daily gains in a market with little appetite for risky assets.

Around 11:10 GMT (12:10 CET), the price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in March lost 1.37% to 87.17 dollars. In New York, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in March, which is the first day of use as a benchmark contract, yielded 1.47% to 84.29 dollars. Shortly after the publication of the EIA report, Brent had even reached 89.50 dollars a barrel, its new high since October 2014. The fall in prices on Friday interrupts an almost daily series of price increases since the start of the year, for both North Sea Brent and WTI.