What's Moving the Oil Markets?

•Crude futures weakened significantly Tuesday as trading patterns dragged the complex down, extending Monday's sell off, market sources said. At 10:23 GMT, the January ICE Brent futures contract was down 91 cents/barrel to $94.44/b, while the January WTI NYMEX futures contract was down $1.07/b.

•"Each time it looked like it would go for $100/b [on WTI], it was just sold into," said a London-based trader. "It is very hard to tell what will happen in the $98-$99/b range. It is just being slapped around." The front month NYMEX WTI contract has breached the $98/b level five times since November 8 and twice moved past $99/b in the last week, but has yet to hit $100/b.

•Market participants said that the latest sell off was driven just by trading strategies rather than in response to any change in fundamentals or new headlines. "Key trends haven't changed," said Kevin Norrish at Barclays Capital. "Inventory levels have fallen and will be tight going into Q1 next year."

Updated: November 27, 2007