Mixed sentiment sees WTI crude ending the day broadly flat; establishes tight $74.26 to $74.59 range

WTI crude is now trading at $74.39 per barrel after tracing out a steady $74.26 – $74.59 range today.

Uncertainty around West Texas crude is reflected by published market data as United States Crude Oil Inventories published yesterday at 14:30 UTC came out at -5 million, falling short of the -1.49 million projections and continuing its decline from the previous -4.58 million figure. Data for United States Core Durable Goods Orders published yesterday at 12:30 UTC came out at 0.3%, beating projections of -0.2% and showing improvement over the preceding figure of -0.3%. United States 5-Year Note Auction released yesterday at 17:00 UTC with a figure of 3.5, while the previous figure was 3.665.

As the day gets underway, chart analysis suggests Crude Oil is approaching key support, around $1.47 away from $72.92. 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. Concerning technical analysis and more specifically, trend indicators, the Commodity Channel Index (CCI) indicator is below -100, meaning the market price is unusually low and below its rolling moving average. Technical analysis indicates that a new, strong downtrend could be forthcoming with short positions favored. According to asset volatility analysis, WTI crude oil's upper Bollinger Band® is at $84.63 and the lower is $74.66.

Overall, the technical outlook suggests WTI crude is likely to remain muted for the immediate future, with no clear-cut direction.

Meanwhile, mixed performances are seen in other Energy as after ending yesterday's session at $2.31, Natural Gas lost 19.1 cents and is trading around $2.12. Heating Oil moves 0.53% to trade around $2.39. Brent Crude Oil moves 0.28% to trade around $77.91.

Furthermore, the market is looking at projections for United States Pending Home Sales are set for a continuation of decline with 0.5% while previous data was 0.8%; data will be released today at 14:00 UTC. As things stand, upcoming United States GDP data is projected to fall short of market expectations with newly published data of two, following on from the preceding figure of 2.6. New data is set to be published today at 12:30 UTC. United States Initial Jobless Claims expected to decline to 248,000 while its preceding data was 245,000, data will be available today at 12:30 UTC.

West Texas crude is now trading 39.14% below the significant high of $122.09 it set around 10 months ago.