•Global crude futures recovered slightly during European morning trading Monday, stabilizing following Friday's selling spree, which was still extended into Asian trading on Monday. Despite bearish fundamentals for crude futures due to a recovery in Iraqi oil production after last week's bomb attacks on a pipeline system on southern Iraq, the persistent volatile patterns for the US dollar, combined with Monday's April contract expiration for NYMEX product futures could induce some upward movement to the complex, sources said.

•On a technical note, the momentum after early last week's bull run following the renewed Iraqi fighting seems to have calmed down, with this week's outlook being far more bearish. "At first sight it looks as if we are drifting a little, waiting for some news to give us some momentum. We seem to be towards the bottom of the range. I guess we have had some bullish news from Iraq, so my guess is that we may try to test support levels next," a London-based broker said.

Updated: March 31, 2008