•The front-month contract for ICE Brent hit a fresh record high in European morning trading of $102.95/barrel, following an earlier move by NYMEX WTI, which pierced the $105/b mark for the first time ever to $105.40/b, extending Wednesday's price rally following a surprise draw in weekly US crude inventories.

•Following WTI's first fresh record on Thursday at 10:11 GMT, triggered by reports on several news wires about a small explosion in central New York City early this morning local time, prices quickly retreated again to the downside--only to pop up again to even higher levels. "The market is completely rumor-driven at the moment...it is reacting to any bullish rumor that comes along," a London-based trader said.

• "The fundamentals are still miles away from providing a clear justification for the current price level, but the ongoing dynamics are characterized by an ability to jump from one cycle of solvers to the next, always in supportive fashion...Paradoxically it is the fact that there is no compelling fundamental story that is making a further rise possible, as then $105/b is just a number that could as well be $120/b," analysts for Petromatrix said in a report Thursday.

Updated: March 5, 2008