What's Moving the Oil Markets?

•Global crude futures traded higher Thursday amid a dearth of fundamental news as consumers, particularly in Asia, took advantage of the weak settlement late Wednesday, traders said. "We've seen a few consumers taking advantage of the slightly weaker prices this morning," a trader said. "After eight or so up days, particularly on Brent, the fall yesterday gave some people an opportunity to come into the market again," they added.

•With increasing amounts of speculative fund money in the market, a fourth failure to close above $73/b on the August WTI contract forced some to take profits. "We saw a lot of profit taking last night," one trader said. "I think funds realised that there was no chance of settling above $73/b on WTI so they decided to get out."

Updated: July 12, 2007