•Brent crude and gasoil futures on ICE set new all-time high trades Thursday in a continuation of Wednesday's strong buying, particularly by funds, after unexpectedly bullish US stock data. "The rally has carried on from yesterday," a trader said. "There has been no news to explain why it is up so much. Yesterday there were extremely significant numbers coming in [US stats]. Expectations were for a 2 mil build but there was a 5 million draw instead."

•A late Wednesday turnaround in US equity markets aided the rally. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down as much as 206 points early in the Wednesday session, but went out nearly unchanged late Wednesday.

•Finally, another long-awaited indicator for oil demand--Chinese economic growth--saw record levels. According to the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics, China's economy grew by 11.5% year on year in the first nine months of this year, fueling the need for more oil, which lent support to prices in early electronic trading.

Updated: October 25, 2007