Bullish phase under threat as West Texas crude stays range-bound

In the midst of a 7 day bullish trend, Thursday's session put the brakes on the ongoing uptrend — West Texas 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.

West Texas crude's state is reflected by market data as data for United States Unemployment Rate published yesterday at 12:30 UTC came out at 3.5, beating projections of 3.6 and showing improvement over the preceding figure of 3.6. Non Farm Payrolls in United States fell short of market expectations (239,000) with a reading of 236,000, continuing the decline from the previous figure of 326,000. United States CFTC Crude Oil speculative net positions released yesterday at 20:30 UTC with a figure of 226,100, while the previous figure was 181,100.

Crude Oil made an initial break below its 5 day Simple Moving Average at $79.74, a possible indication of a forthcoming negative trend. WTI crude's upper Bollinger Band® is at $82.61, suggesting that a downward move may follow. In contrast, WTI crude is currently alternating around $79.75 with price action moving above and below this key level throughout the session.

Despite the market lacking direction, technical chart analysis strongly suggests West Texas crude is positioned for a downward move in the near term.

While WTI crude was pretty flat Thursday, mixed performances were seen elsewhere as Natural Gas moves 1.19% Thursday and closed at $2.

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