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On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude futures for delivery in December traded at USD94.35 a barrel during European morning trade, up 0.15%. The December contract settled down 0.63% at USD94.20 a barrel on Thursday. Oil futures were likely to find support at USD93.69 a barrel, the low from November 6 and resistance at USD95.31 a barrel, Thursday's high. Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for November delivery eased 0.06% to trade at USD103.40 a barrel, with the spread between the Brent and crude contracts standing at USD9.05 a barrel.

ICE Gasoil contract for November delivery settled at 888.50 USD on Thursday. This was 16.50 USD below Wednesday's settlement. With some 34,000 deals, the traded volume was well below average. After a phase of consolidation in morning trading, oil prices tumbled in London on Thursday on fears of a glut in crude oil on the European market. Rising North Sea production, low crude imports into the U.S., hopes of a speedy recovery of Libyan oil production (Goldman Sachs) and the progress made in the nuclear talks with Iran weighed on ICE prices in particular. Brent and gasoil fell to fresh longtime lows. The surprise cut of the BCE's benchmark interest rate to a historical low of 0,25% weighed heavily on the euro and supported the dollar, making dollar-nominated oil futures more expensive for investors holding foreign currencies who got rid of their long positions by taking profit as they looked past strong U.S. economic growth data (the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 2.8%, a quicker pace than the 2% that economists had expected) and a drop in initial jobless claims. The futures at the ICE finished the session at 4-month lows while the WTI got a certain support from dealers liquidating their spread bets, reducing the price difference between the two benchmarks to less than 9 dollars.

The Stochastic stays bullish at the WTI chart but we exclude the contract from our considerations also today. At the ICE charts both indicators are neutral at the oversold level after several more support lines were breached yesterday, exposing more downside. But as long as there are no fresh signals triggered by the RSI and/or the Stochastic we consider the technical market situation as neutral today but like to point out that investors' focus will be on the fundamentals today.

U.S.

Nymex bearish: Oil prices are little changed at ICE and NYMEX this morning, trading in a narrow range with a slightly bearish tendency after last night's volatile trading. The traded NYMEX volume is little below average for this time of day. Market players anticipate the opening of European markets, the movements of the euro, the results of the nuclear talks in Geneva and the release of some economic indicators, the most observed today will be the government's official employment report.

Houston (ex-wharf indications 7-11)
380cst $584
180cst $652
MGO $974

New Orleans (ex-wharf indications 7-11)
380cst $588
180cst $638
MGO $977

Singapore

Crude easing with WTI -$0.29. Singapore paper is bearish with -$2.65 for 180cst and -$1.75 for 380cst for Nov, and for Dec 180 cst -$3.00 and 380cst -$2.50 with MGO contracts Nov -$0.77 and Dec -$0.78. The cargo market is following with 180 cst -$6.49 380cst -$5.77 and MGO -$0.47.

380cst $590
180cst $595
MGO $890

Fujairah (delivered indications 8-11)

380cst $608
180cst $653
MGO $970

ARA (Amsterdam - Rotterdam - Antwerp)

Indications for delivered bunkers:
380cst : $567
(1.0 %) :$586
180cst: $607
(1.0 %):$ 616
MGO 0.1%S: $ 862