•Crude futures continued trading in record territory Wednesday ahead of the release of weekly US petroleum inventories data later today, after NYMEX front-month crude settled at an all-time high of $81.51/barrel Tuesday. At 10:59 London time, Nov ICE Brent stabilized above $78/barrel, up 51 cents to $78.10/b, after hitting an intra-day high of $78.40/b in Asian trading. Oct NYMEX WTI, having climbed to another new all-time high of $82.38/b in late Tuesday trading, was up 72 cents from the end-of-day settle at $82.23/b.

•The renewed rally in late Tuesday trading followed the 50 basis point rate cut to 4.75% by the US Federal Reserve, the first cut since May 2003 and surpassing widely held expectations of a 25 basis points cut. A London-based trader said: "Yesterday's rally in WTI was due to the larger-than-expected interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve... the market expected a 25 basis point drop, with the 50 basis point drop the market just went crazy. However, after the US stats today, I think we could see some profit taking," he added.

•Analysts surveyed by Platts Tuesday were bullish ahead of the release of US stats. They expect crude oil stocks to drop 1.75 million barrels, with refinery runs seen down 1 percentage point to 89.5%. Distillates stocks are expected to have built by 1.3 million barrels, in line with seasonal tendencies, while gasoline stocks are forecast to have dropped 1.5 million barrels.

Updated: September 19, 2007