•Global crude futures dropped almost $1/barrel Monday as fears of hurricane Dean affecting major oil production and potentially damaging US refineries eased. "Everyone is talking about hurricane Dean. That's it," a trader said. "It looks like it's not going to hit (US) Gulf coast production so people are selling their hurricane premium," they added. In its latest bulletin, at 2:00 am EDT (06:00 GMT) Monday, US National Hurricane Center said that hurricane Dean was moving west and would strike the Mexican Gulf Coast well south of the US' key oil producing and refining region.

•The fall in the energy complex is the "selling of hurricane premium," a according to a broker. However prices may rise later in the session as equity markets, a major factor in the downturn in prices over the past fortnight, moved higher. The initial move started Friday as the US Federal Reserve cut the lending rate it charges commercial banks in an effort to ward off a credit crunch. Asian stock markets picked up the mantle and roared back on Monday as investors jumped on board.

Updated: August 20, 2007