What's Moving the Oil Markets?

•Global crude futures recovered slightly in European morning trading on Tue from the massive price plunge along the sector that shook the petroleum complex on Monday, triggered by bearish technicals and a lack of fundamental support, sources said. "Brent slightly recovered this morning, which is going hand-in-hand with recovering European stock markets on Tuesday," a broker said. He added, "I think the market has found some support at the current levels and we are certainly seeing some hedgers who have been absent in the market, reappearing with their buy orders. I think the speculators are going to wait for the US stats before reassessing the scenario."

•Despite the slight upward trend for Brent on Tuesday, technicals continue to look bearish ahead of the next set of US stock data, published on Wednesday, analysts said. "The equity markets have managed to reverse the losses of the previous day but it will be a harder task for oil to do the same. WTI is back to the price levels of early July and from June 26 to July 31 the large speculative funds have added 67,000 fresh longs that have now gone into losses or break-even at best," analysts for Petromatrix said in a report Tuesday.

Updated: August 7, 2007