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June 16, 2023On a 4 day uptrend, Today's session might suggest a slow down — without a clear-cut direction, West Texas crude is trading around $70.48 per barrel and ranging between $70.38 and $70.73.
Uncertainty around US crude oil is reflected by published market data as highly important Retail Sales data from United States beat analyst expectations of -0.1% with a reading of 0.3%. New United States Initial Jobless Claims data fell short of the 250,000 projected by analysts with a reading of 262,000 while failing to improve upon the previous reading from last month (262,000). United States Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index (Jun) came out at -13.7, while a consensus of analysts was expecting -13.5.
Crude Oil made an initial breakout above its 10 day Simple Moving Average at $70.64, a potential indicator of a newly emerging bullish phase. WTI crude is approaching key support, around $1.79 away from $68.69. 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 muted price action in West Texas crude, chart analysis indicates it is positioned for a bullish run in the short term.
West Texas crude hit a significant low of $67.25 around 4 days ago, but has since recovered 5%.
