The latest from London: Investors breathe a sigh of relief, but oil threat remains

However, the blue-chip index is flat this morning, as oil prices continues to rise. A barrel of Brent now costs more than $83. Oil prices surged again after the U.S. Department of Energy said the U.S. was not prepared to "immediately" tap into the country's strategic reserves to meet the rising price of black gold.

All eyes now turn to the release of the U.S. payrolls data early this afternoon to get some clues on the state of the US economy and how this will affect the monetary policy of the Fed.

London's FTSE 100 rose on Friday, led oil stocks. On the downside, Weir Group dropped 6.2% after revealing it was the target of an attempted ransomware attack in September, which hit its profit.

Things to read:

• Where did Tether billions go? (Bloomberg).
• U.S. Troops Have Been Deployed in Taiwan for at Least a Year  (WSJ)
• China orders coal miners to boost output to counter energy crunch (Financial Times)