What's Moving the Oil Markets?

•Crude futures drifted lower Friday, taking a breather after their near $2/barrel surge seen in late-Thursday trading following the release of the latest US weekly inventory data, which showed an unexpected draw in crude stocks.

•Although the EIA's data lacked a clear bullish signal, the whole complex took direction from it to rally on Thursday, particularly from the drop in crude stocks. At 10:40 GMT on Friday, however, prices had retreated, with Nov ICE Brent down 33 cents to $79.82/barrel, from its record settlement Thursday of $80.15/b. Nov NYMEX WTI also fell, losing 30 cents to $82.78/b. "The market is dead this morning, very quiet, what we are seeing at the moment is just a correction from Thursday's price rally following the stats," a London-based broker said.

•The EIA reported an unexpected 1.7 million barrel draw in crude futures, while refinery utilization increased 0.3 percentage points to 87.8%. Mixed signals emerged from product stocks, with gasoline up 1.7 million barrels, while distillate stocks declined by 600,000 barrels.

Updated: October 12, 2007