Over the past week and a half, crude oil prices have been on a rollercoaster ride. Within the large ranges, the force of gravity has generally worked against bullish speculators after the 3-week rally ended in mid-August when Brent hit $51 and WTI reached $49 a barrel again.
Oil prices swung wildly into the positive territory yesterday. The rally eventually came to a halt around the $50 handle for Brent and $48 for WTI, and both contracts have been trending lower from these levels until an hour or so ago.
The longer term recovery for oil which peaked in the $52 per barrel area last month, is now reversing once more and picking up bearish momentum ahead of the weekly oil inventories due for release later today, as both the technical and fundamental picture help to drive prices lower once again.
Today’s headlines that have caught the attention of our traders this morning as they prepare for the upcoming market session.
Whilst many commodities reacted strongly to the US employment data on Friday, with a consequent surge higher on US dollar weakness,
The billionaire behind China’s Dalian Wanda Group asserted that its rival Walt Disney may face huge obstacles when operating in the country as the iconic US firm is due to unveil its largest theme park in the Chinese mainland next month.
China Shenhua Energy Company Limited, the nation’s top coal producer, has said its net profits plummeted 28.3 percent year on year to 4.74 billion yuan (734 million U.S. dollars) in the first quarter of 2016.
For longer term traders and investors in oil, as we come to the end of another month with the latest weekly oil inventories now posted, it is once again the weekly and monthly charts that provide insight and context for the future trends.
The word that comes to mind to describe the price action on the daily WTI oil chart is ‘stately’ with crude oil continuing to move higher in a series of small rallies then punctuated with a pause point and further consolidation.
Today’s Key Economic Data
