•Global crude futures in morning European trading recovered some of their earlier losses, but were still significantly weaker versus overnight closing prices, market sources said.

•"This weakness in crude is purely due to the influence of equity markets," said a London-based trader. "Stocks have been up a bit this morning, so crude seems to be up as well on that."

•European bourses had strengthened marginally from opening losses, and reversing another substantial sell-off in Asian equity markets. The London FTSE 100 index was down 0.58% at 5,545.80 in mid-morning trade after having lost 1.53% in earlier deals. In Paris the CAC 40 was off by 0.73% at 4,710.03 after an opening loss of 2.57%. On Monday, European exchanges suffered their largest one-day loss since the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

Updated: January 22, 2008