•Global crude futures were rangebound Tuesday with the focus remaining on the situation in the Middle East. The spread between front-month NYMEX WTI and ICE Brent futures widened to $5/barrel as WTI collapsed on Monday due to the monthly Goldman Sachs Commodity Index roll as well as mounting crude inventories in the US. "It's pretty rangebound today. There's not much going on. People are still concentrating on the situation in Iran and also working out what happened to prices on Monday," a broker said.

•Prices fell significantly on Monday as mounting crude inventories in the US Midwest, particularly at Cushing, Oklahoma, home of the NYMEX delivery point, sparked weakness in the front-month spread.

•Monday marked the beginning of Goldman Sachs' five-day roll period when positions held as part of the company's commodity index get moved from the front month into the second month contract. The May/June spread settled at -$2.80/b on Monday after closing at -$2.09/b on Friday.

Updated: April 10, 2007