•Global crude futures recovered slightly on Wednesday morning following Tuesday afternoon's sell-off, which saw prices for front-month Brent and WTI slip below the psychologically important $70/barrel mark as supply fears stemming from Hurricane Dean eased. At 10:02 GMT, October ICE Brent was up 13 cents to $68.82/b, having fallen to their lowest value since early June at $68.14/b during Tuesday trading. The new front-month October NYMEX WTI contract stabilized just below $70/b, gaining 13 cents to $69.70/b.

•Expectations appear bullish for US weekly petroleum inventory data to be released by the Energy Information Administration and the American Petroleum Institute later on today. Analysts surveyed by Platts on Tuesday forecast a 3.2 million barrel draw in crude stocks, with refinery runs up 0.4 percentage points to 92.2%. This is expected to result in a 700,000 barrel draw in gasoline, while distillate stocks are expected to have built by 800,000 barrels.

•A fall in gasoline stocks would lend support to prices and would likely drive more profit-taking from funds as the US driving season is coming to an end and shortages caused by hurricane disruptions appear unlikely at the moment, analysts said.

Updated: August 22, 2007