LONDON — Brent crude extended its retreat from last week's record peak for a second session on Thursday, dropping toward $108 a barrel as the global market continued to digest OPEC+'s decision to push roughly 1.5 million additional barrels a day into circulation, while European equities opened broadly higher and the dollar gave back some of its war-driven gains.

The June Brent contract traded as low as $108.40 in early London dealing before changing hands at $109.20 by midmorning, taking its decline since Tuesday's emergency Vienna communique to nearly 13 percent. West Texas Intermediate followed Brent lower, slipping below $105 a barrel for the first time in eleven sessions. Gasoline futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange dropped 3.4 percent and European diesel cracks narrowed sharply as physical traders reported a renewed appetite for prompt-loading cargoes out of the U.S. Gulf and the Mediterranean.

The pan-European STOXX 600 rose 1.1 percent in the first hour of trading, building on a 1.6 percent gain on Wednesday, with Germany's DAX up 1.3 percent, France's CAC 40 ahead 1.2 percent and London's FTSE 100 lower by 0.2 percent as gains in industrials and travel stocks were offset by a slide in BP and Shell. Bourses in Madrid, Milan and Amsterdam each added more than 1 percent. Asian equities had set the tone overnight, with Japan's Nikkei 225 closing 2.3 percent higher and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index up 1.7 percent at the bell.

"The Vienna communique did more than add barrels — it restored a sense that the supply side of this war has a coordinated response," said Lucia Fernandes, head of commodity strategy at Banco Santander in Madrid. "What you are watching today is the first clean session in three weeks in which traders feel they can lean on a number from the cartel rather than guess at one."

Markets had been pricing in a coordinated Saudi-Emirati increase of between 1.0 and 1.4 million barrels a day ahead of Tuesday's emergency session, and the headline 1.5 million figure landed at the upper end of expectations. Kuwait and Iraq agreed to contribute marginal volumes, while Russia, whose acceptance of the package had been in doubt as recently as Monday evening, signed off on the communique after securing a clause that allows individual members to scale back contributions if Brent falls below $90 a barrel on a sustained basis.

The International Energy Agency in Paris welcomed the alliance's response but kept its own emergency reserve plan in reserve. "We have stood down the active phase of our coordinated drawdown for now," IEA spokeswoman Camille Devereux said in a written statement Thursday, "but the agency's 1.2 billion barrels of strategic stocks remain on a heightened-readiness footing for as long as the security picture in the Strait of Hormuz warrants it."

War-risk insurance premiums for vessels transiting the strait, which touched 0.95 percent of hull value on Monday, eased to 0.78 percent in Thursday's London fixings, according to a broker at the Lloyd's marine market. Tanker bookings out of Ras Tanura and Fujairah picked up modestly on Wednesday, port agents said, although several Asian refiners told Reuters and Platts that they were waiting for a third consecutive day of unbroken passage before committing to fresh April liftings.

"The price has come down, but the chokepoint has not gone away," said John Reilly, an oil-sector analyst at Citi in New York. "OPEC+ has produced a number large enough to change the supply narrative. It has not produced a number large enough to neutralize a tanker incident in Hormuz, which is why we are not yet recommending clients short the war premium below $105."

The dollar weakened against most major currencies as the pull of safe-haven flows ebbed. The DXY dollar index slipped 0.5 percent to 104.40, its weakest level in nine sessions, while the euro climbed back above $1.07 and the British pound rose 0.4 percent to $1.2680. The Japanese yen, which had benefited from haven demand for much of last week, eased to 143.60 against the dollar. Gold gave up part of its blistering month-long rally, falling 1.6 percent to $3,338 an ounce after touching a record above $3,418 on Monday. Silver dropped 2.2 percent to $41.80.

Sovereign bond markets reflected the same modest rotation back toward risk. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose four basis points to 3.96 percent, German Bund yields ticked up to 2.40 percent and U.K. gilts climbed to 4.13 percent. Wall Street futures pointed to a firmer cash open, with S&P 500 e-minis up 0.8 percent, Nasdaq 100 contracts ahead 1.1 percent and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures up 0.6 percent. The S&P 500 has now recovered roughly a third of its peak-to-trough decline since the Iran war began in late February, though it remains down 2.9 percent on the year.

Equity-sector performance underscored the recalibration. European airlines led gainers, with International Consolidated Airlines Group, the parent of British Airways, up 4.6 percent and Lufthansa climbing 4.1 percent on hopes that jet-fuel relief would feed through into second-quarter margins. Auto and luxury names also rebounded; LVMH added 2.3 percent and Stellantis 2.7 percent. Defense contractors, which had outperformed for most of March, lagged the rally: Rheinmetall slipped 1.4 percent and BAE Systems shed 0.9 percent. Integrated oil majors gave back part of their war-period gains, with BP off 2.6 percent and TotalEnergies down 1.9 percent.

"We are seeing the textbook rotation that follows a credible policy response to a supply shock," said Devon Hartshorn, chief U.S. equity strategist at Pemberton Garrett in New York. "Capital is moving out of energy, defense and gold and back into the cyclicals that were sold most aggressively in the first phase of the war. The question for next week is whether earnings season validates the move."

That question loomed large for traders on Thursday. The first-quarter U.S. reporting period begins next week with the major banks, and tech bellwethers including Apple, Microsoft and NVIDIA are scheduled to report later in April. Several strategists cautioned that corporate guidance, rather than backward-looking results, would determine whether the relief rally could broaden into a durable recovery, particularly given the lingering hit to industrial demand from elevated energy costs in Europe and Asia.

Outside the energy complex, attention turned to the start of the new month's economic data calendar. Eurozone unemployment for February, released at 11 a.m. Frankfurt time, came in at 6.3 percent, a tick higher than the prior reading but in line with the consensus forecast. The U.S. ISM services index and the Labor Department's weekly jobless claims, both due later Thursday, will provide the first read on how American activity has fared since the Iran war pushed retail gasoline above $4.60 a gallon in the second half of March.

Layla Hassan, a Beirut-based regional analyst at Eurasia Group, cautioned that markets risked over-pricing the durability of the OPEC+ response if Islamabad's diplomatic track did not deliver tangible progress in the coming days. "Vienna has bought time, not peace," Hassan said. "If next week brings another major missile exchange or a tanker incident, the curve will reprice violently in the other direction, and the cushion the alliance has provided will look a lot thinner than it does this morning."

Officials in Riyadh said Saudi Arabia's incremental barrels would begin loading from Wednesday next week, with full volumes reaching international refiners by the end of April. Traders said attention through the U.S. session would focus on whether Brent could hold above $107 a barrel into the close, a level several technical desks have flagged as the first meaningful support on the way back down from last week's highs.