London (Platts)--29Sep2009/636 am EDT/1036 GMT

Global crude futures traded lower as external factors continued to place pressure on the crude complex. "The market has moved slightly lower...due to a stronger dollar and weaker equity markets," a London-based crude broker said citing a lack of "fundamental news" sufficient enough to see crude drift lower.

At 10:06 GMT, front month ICE Brent traded at $65.24/b, a $0.30 fall from Monday's settle. The NYMEX WTI contract also traded lower at $66.61/b, down $0.23.

The ICE dollar index traded higher at 77.064 points.

Geopolitical tensions following missile tests by Iran were seemingly unable to push the market higher during morning trading.

"The market seems to have ignored the geopolitical tensions in Iran," another source said.

On Monday, Iran test-fired the Sejil, which it says has a range of around 2,000 km, sufficient to hit targets in the Gulf and parts of Europe as well as Israel, and Tuesday it said it would produce an "improved and advanced" version of the missile, AFP reported.

From a technical basis, "the fact that crude oil has held a $65/b support basis November WTI is technically significant, and could provide a psychological boost for long money to perhaps take a chance on a bounce off the trading range bottom," energy analyst Edward Meir said in an MF Global report. "Prices should remain confined to the $65-$75 trading range for some time to come."

The API releases its weekly US petroleum stocks report later Tuesday. The US Energy Information Administration releases separate data Wednesday.

Analysts polled by Platts are expecting builds of 2.1 million barrels for crude, 1.2 million barrels for gasoline and 900,000 barrels for middle distillate stocks.

--George Johnson, george_johnson@platts.com