Crude Oil Drifts Lower
Crude oil prices have eased back at the start of this week, with a barrel of Brent costing $62.25 and WTI $57.25.
Crude oil prices have eased back at the start of this week, with a barrel of Brent costing $62.25 and WTI $57.25.
Believe it or not, crude oil is actually up for the fifth consecutive day now. Despite on-going bearish news flow and downbeat sentiment, oil prices appear stable ahead of the official US weekly crude inventories data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) later this afternoon.
Crude oil was unable to hold onto its gains on Monday after appearing for a while to have ended its bearish run. Oil prices have fallen for three consecutive weeks after the OPEC and Russia failed to surprise the markets with their decision to extend the oil production deal.
The price of oil has surged higher at the start of the new trading week. This has helped to lift energy stocks and also underpin commodity currencies such as the Canadian dollar (FXC, quote).
Commodities price are firmer today with base and especially precious metals ending a bad run off losses, while crude oil has extended its gains from the day before when it rallied sharply on the back of the weekly US oil inventories report.
Market participants in crude oil are continuing to shrug off persistent jawboning from oil ministers of some OPEC countries, most notably Saudi Arabia, about extending the production cuts into the second half of 2017, and possibly the first quarter of 2018.
Last week was an interesting one for oil traders (USO, quote) and speculators, as crude oil continued to move lower from Monday to Thursday, before bouncing strongly on Friday and closing in positive territory for the day, with a deep wicked candle on the daily chart and associated with high volume.
For oil traders, speculators and indeed corporate buyers, the price action on the daily oil chart reflects a confused picture for crude oil, and to mix metaphors for a moment, the waters have been muddied and remain confused and uncertain.
Crude oil prices surged a huge $3 dollars or 5% higher at the Asian open with Brent briefly trading north of $57 and WTI above $54 a barrel before pulling back slightly.
For obvious reasons, all the focus is on the OPEC meeting. As we pointed out the possibility yesterday, oil prices have bounced back very strongly today on renewed hopes that oil ministers will, after all, be able to hammer out a deal later on to limit crude production.