•Global crude futures fell Tuesday morning as market players reacted to the massive 10 cent drop in NYMEX RBOB futures seen during Monday's session. Some profit-taking as well as a failure for the, now expired, ICE August Brent contract to breach the all-time high of $78.65/barrel, also weighed down on prices, brokers said.

•At 09:36 GMT September ICE Brent was down 76 cents at $75.35/b. The August WTI futures on NYMEX and ICE traded 17 cents lower at $73.98/b. "Despite yesterday's pullback prices remain very well supported, helped by tightening fundamentals and strong market sentiment," a report by Barclays Capital said. The energy complex moved in many directions on Monday.

•ICE Brent fell while NYMEX WTI gained ground on US refinery restart news. This news triggered a massive sell-off in product futures. The August NYMEX RBOB contract settled just under 10 cents lower as the refinery restarts prompted a selloff in the crack spreads. The refinery restarts occurred while non-commercials were holding their largest long position in RBOB futures ever. While RBOB was undergoing a washout to the downside, crude was holding fast to the $74/b as the market started to price in a decline in crude inventories.

Updated: July 17, 2007