Where, overall, over the past 2-week period crude prices have not changed much, some considerable volatility has been observed. After having starting out at $107.89 on August 1, WTI crude fell to a low of $103.40 on August 8 as increase production from Midwestern US, Libya and IRAQ increased global and domestic supplies.  Disappointing job performance in the US and concern over the Chinese manufacturing complex also served to dampen prices. In recent days, however, Middle East supply concerns related to labour issues in Libya, terminal construction issues in IRAQ and political tension in Egypt combined with some encouraging data concerning US retail sales have served to inflate WTI and Brent pricing back to the levels seen in early August.