Oil Futures Give Back Gains With Eyes on Mideast

Crude futures step back from two-month highs reached last week, while the market keeps an eye on widening conflict in the Middle East. "Recent developments in the Middle East remain an upside risk to our view on the market," ING's head commodities strategist Warren Patterson says in a report. While the rebel threat is sending tankers around the tip of Africa and lengthening voyage times, "the bigger upside risk for the oil market is if tensions in the Middle East spread, which starts to have an impact on oil production or cuts off oil flows that cannot be rerouted," he adds.