•Crude futures rebounded Tuesday in morning European trading, with market players citing a dip buy and slightly favorable technicals as the reason for the upturn. On Monday, the energy complex collapsed as the US dollar rebounded and traders saw a bearish technical picture. "This is just people buying the dip after yesterday," a London-based broker said. "However, I think we did find some technical support, which has helped things as well this morning."

•In the longer term, however, some think that the 4% drop in prices since Friday "is a sign of things to come," a broker said. "You look at the positions the hedge funds have and what we saw yesterday is only a tiny part of the start of a downturn. They are just playing around with it and neither the price nor the structure of the crude curves reflect the current fundamentals," the broker added.

Updated: January 8, 2008