Mixed sentiment sees West Texas crude ending the day broadly flat; establishes tight $81.76 to $83.12 range

Friday at a glance: after ending Thursday at $82.16, US crude oil spiked to $83.12 Friday, dropped back to starting point range, and rallied again to $82.68 per barrel.

Crude Oil made an initial break below its 3 day Simple Moving Average at $82.35, a possible indication of a forthcoming negative trend. West Texas crude's upper Bollinger Band® is at $84.94, suggesting that a downward move may follow. On the other hand, note that WTI crude is currently alternating around $81.93 with price action moving above and below this key level throughout the session.

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

While US crude oil was pretty flat Friday, mixed performances were seen elsewhere as Natural Gas added 4.93% and closed around $2 Friday. A flat day for Brent Crude Oil, closing at $86.45. After ending Friday's session at $2.67, Heating Oil lost 2.54 cents and is trading around $2.65.

US crude oil reached a significant high of $122.09 around 10 months ago but has lost 32.71% since then.