Global crude futures were a touch weaker Tuesday, after two consecutive
days of falls amid concern over the US economy and a recovering US dollar.

At 09:50 GMT, December WTI on the New York Mercantile Exchange--the new
front month contract--was trading at $85.88/barrel, down 12 cents from the
previous settle. The December Brent contract on the IntercontinentalExchange
was similarly sluggish by mid-morning trade in London Tuesday, slipping 12
cents to $83.15/b.

"The market's taking a bit of a breather after a lot of volatility in
recent days. Yesterday, crude prices were just shadowing the US dollar. I
expect that to continue today because there's nothing much else going on in
the market in terms of fresh news," said a London-based broker.

A stronger US dollar makes imports of commodities more expensive.

The November WTI contract traded in a fairly wide range on the contract
expiration Monday, eventually settling $1.04/barrel lower at $87.56/barrel.

The contract hit an all-time high of $90.07/b Friday, but soon gave way
to profit-taking.

Market participants are now shifting their attention to the release of
the weekly US petroleum stocks data, due out on Wednesday.

"I'm expecting prices to fall below $85/b today ahead of potentially
bearish stock figures," added the broker.

However, Petromatrix said in a report Tuesday that "technically the
upward momentum is not yet dead, but will need an urgent confirmation today as
the slope of the five-day moving average has started to turn negative."

In NYMEX products markets, the November gasoline contract was at
$2.1293/gal, down 0.41 cents/gal and November heating oil was at $2.3094/gal,
down 0.15 cents/gal. On ICE, the November gasoil contract was trading at
$723.75/mt, slipping $1.50/mt.

--Deepa Vijiyasingam, deepa_vijiyasingam@platts.com