Mixed sentiment sees West Texas crude ending the day broadly flat; establishes tight $70 to $70.38 range

A mostly flat day so far for WTI crude oil, ranging between $70 and $70.38; currently at $70.34 per barrel.

US crude oil's state is reflected by market data as data for United States Crude Oil Inventories published yesterday at 15:00 UTC came out at 4.49 million, beating projections of -1.10 million and showing improvement over the preceding figure of -12.46 million. United States ISM Manufacturing PMI (May) released yesterday at 14:00 UTC with a figure of 46.9, while the previous figure was 47.1. Highly important Initial Jobless Claims data from United States beat analyst expectations of 235,000 with a reading of 232,000.

With regards to technical trend indicators, chart analysis show that Crude Oil made an initial break below its 3 day Simple Moving Average at $70.19, a possible indication of a forthcoming negative trend. Analysis based on the asset volatility indicates that WTI crude oil's upper Bollinger Band® is at $74.32 and the lower is $68.59. A study of West Texas crude's chart reveals various key levels to watch: WTI crude is approaching key support, around $2.22 away from $68.12. 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.

All in all, the technical analysis suggests WTI crude has no clear-cut direction.

Meanwhile, mixed performances are seen in other Energy as Natural Gas trades close to $2.17, with no major change. Heating Oil moves 0.14% to trade around $2.32.

Furthermore, the market is looking at today at 12:30 UTC data for United States Non Farm Payrolls will be released, with an expected decline to 180,000 from the preceding figure of 253,000. As things stand, upcoming United States Average Hourly Earnings data is projected to fall short of market expectations with newly published data of 0.4%, following on from the preceding figure of 0.5%. New data is set to be published today at 12:30 UTC. Today at 12:30 UTC data for United States Unemployment Rate will be released, with an expected decline to 3.5 from the preceding figure of 3.4.

WTI crude oil hit a significant low of $68.06 around 2 days ago, but has since recovered 3%.