•Crude futures moved slightly higher in European trading on Tuesday, as equity markets saw some improvement and the US dollar took a breather from its recent rally, prompting a recovery in petroleum futures prices, sources said.

•"The market has been under a lot of pressure recently so I think what we are seeing today is just a small reduction, with the help of the US dollar," a London-based futures broker said. "We could see more losses this week as I still do not think that we have seen the lows yet...we could see $50/b, but this will depend on what margins are doing at that time. But I would not write that possibility off at the moment," he added.

•"Global markets will be looking to the decision of the [US] Fed on interest rates tomorrow. A cut of 50 basis points is more or less already priced in. [The European Central Bank's] Trichet has stated that 'it is not a certainty but a possibility' that the ECB would cut rate at its meeting Thursday next week, which in plain language means that it is a certainty that the ECB will also cut," oil analyst Olivier Jakob for Petromatrix said in a report Tuesday.

Updated: October 28, 2008