In the midst of a 6 day bullish trend, Yesterday's session put the brakes on the ongoing uptrend — Brent crude oil recovered back to $84.83 per barrel after dipping down to $84.05, in a session that followed Wednesday's $85.12 close value.
This uncertain state for ICE Brent crude is reflected by published market data as United States Initial Jobless Claims released earlier showed a marked improvement to 228,000 from the preceding data of 246,000, but fell short of the 200,000 figure forecast by a consensus of market analysts. United States Reserve Balances with Federal Reserve Banks released yesterday at 20:30 UTC with a figure of 3.38 trillion, while the previous figure was 3.40 trillion. Fresh Fed's Balance Sheet data from United States came out at 8.63 trillion.
Brent Crude Oil made an initial break below its 3 day Simple Moving Average at $83.34, a possible indication of a forthcoming negative trend. Brent crude oil's upper Bollinger Band® is at $87.33, suggesting that a downward move may follow. Despite this, Brent crude is approaching key support, around 71 cents away from $84.12. Dipping below could indicate further losses are ahead while a failure to break below this level is likely to be seen positively by market bulls.
Despite the market lacking direction, technical chart analysis strongly suggests Brent crude oil is positioned for a downward move in the near term.
Meanwhile, mixed performances are seen in other Energy as a flat day for Natural Gas, closing at $2.04.
Data to be released Sunday might clear up some of the market fog as United States Non Farm Payrolls projected to decline to 239,000 while previous data was 311,000; data will be released today at 12:30 UTC. United States Unemployment Rate is expected today at 12:30 UTC.
ICE Brent crude has fallen back around 31.13% over the past 9 months, from a notable high of $123.6.