Bullish phase under threat as US crude oil stays range-bound

On a 7 day uptrend, Yesterday's session put the brakes on the ongoing uptrend — WTI crude recovered back to $80.46 per barrel after dipping down to $79.65, in a session that followed Wednesday's $80.7 close value.

Uncertainty around WTI crude is reflected by published market data as highly important Initial Jobless Claims data from United States beat analyst expectations of 200,000 with a reading of 228,000. 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. United States Fed's Balance Sheet came out at 8.63 trillion.

Crude Oil made an initial break below its 5 day Simple Moving Average at $79.74, a possible indication of a forthcoming negative trend. US crude oil's upper Bollinger Band® is at $82.61, suggesting that a downward move may follow. Despite this, WTI crude is approaching key support, around 71 cents away from $79.75. 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 WTI crude is positioned for a downward move in the near term.

Meanwhile, mixed performances are seen in other Energy as Natural Gas moves 1.19% yesterday and closed at $2.

Data to be released Sunday might clear up some of the market fog as as things stand, upcoming United States Non Farm Payrolls data is projected to fall short of market expectations with newly published data of 239,000, following on from the preceding figure of 311,000. New data is set to be published today at 12:30 UTC. United States Unemployment Rate is expected today at 12:30 UTC.

Having soared to a high of $122.09 approximately 9 months ago, WTI crude oil is now trading 33.9% lower.