Crude oil futures finally managed to find some bullish momentum today, courtesy of the oil inventories from Cushing, which helped oil to reclaim the $100 per barrel level, to currently trade at the time of writing at $101.26 per barrel.
The plunge in gold prices yesterday, rocked the markets with the precious metal shedding over $30 per ounce in the futures market as the big operators finally triggered the move in a classic pump and dump operation.
Oil prices continued to move firmly lower once again in yesterday’s oil trading session with the WTI futures contract for August closing at $102.29 per barrel, and ending with a wide spread down candle as the commodity lost over a dollar per barrel on the day.
In the past couple of days we have seen extreme and unusual price activity in the December gold futures contract with yesterday’s volume exceeding that of Tuesday’s by some distance, but without the requisite move higher.
With the FOMC meeting now consigned to history, and the currency markets now returning to ‘business as usual’ here is a round up for the Aussie, the British pound, the Canadian dollar and of course the euro
Oil continues to find it hard work, building on the bullish breakout of mid June, having moved into a sustained phase of price congestion over the last few weeks, as it continues to slide lower ahead of today’s oil inventories report.
In my post of 28th May I suggested that the Canadian Dollar was approaching a key turning point as it was heavily overbought as displayed on our daily currency strength indicator on the left. Since then, the currency has indeed been selling off and for evidence of this we need to look no further than the CAD/USD June futures where this price action is clearly reflected.
Oil appears to have run out out of steam once again, following the bullish rally during May, with $104 per barrel once again proving to be a major stumbling block, and as shown on the daily chart with the yellow dotted line.
For gold bugs, 2014 promised so much following its long decline in 2013, which saw the precious metal lose over $500 per ounce. The first quarter of 2014 looked promising with gold recovering $300 per ounce and climbing back to test the $1,400 per ounce level – heady days.
Brent crude oil (BNO, quote) prices climbed as problems in Libya continued and US crude inventory data showed that the nation’s stocks fell last week.
