Mixed sentiment sees US crude oil ending the day broadly flat; establishes tight $71.76 to $72 range

US crude oil went up to $72 only to drop back to some of the way and is now trading at $71.79 per barrel.

This uncertain state for WTI crude is reflected by published market data as highly important Pending Home Sales data from United States beat analyst expectations of 0.5% with a reading of 0%. Highly important GDP data from United States beat analyst expectations of 1.1 with a reading of 1.3. Highly important Initial Jobless Claims data from United States beat analyst expectations of 250,000 with a reading of 229,000.

Crude Oil made an initial break below its 21 day Simple Moving Average at $71.73, a possible indication of a forthcoming negative trend. WTI crude's upper Bollinger Band® is at $74.22, suggesting that a downward move may follow. On the other hand, note that WTI crude oil is approaching key support, around $1.37 away from $70.42. 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 West Texas crude is positioned for a downward move in the near term.

Data to be released later is expected to clarify investor sentiment while boosting price action volatility as United States Core Durable Goods Orders expected to decline to 0% while its preceding data was 0.3%, data will be available tomorrow at 12:30 UTC. United States Core PCE Price Index (MoM) (Apr) will be released tomorrow at 12:30 UTC.

After hitting an important low of $68.25 approximately 22 days ago, US crude oil has bounced back 5.25% since.