Stagnant West Texas crude mostly flat, trades at $68.08

It's been more of the same this session on the back of 3 days of flat trade, Today's session so far looks to be heading in a similar way — WTI crude trades at $68.08 per barrel, after ending yesterday at $68.27.

United States Initial Jobless Claims is next today at 12:30 UTC.

This uncertain state for West Texas crude is reflected by published market data as United States Interest Rate came out at 5.25, while a consensus of analysts was expecting 5.25. Data for United States Crude Oil Inventories published yesterday at 14:30 UTC came out at 7.92 million, beating projections of 1.48 million and showing improvement over the preceding figure of -451,000. Producer Price Index in United States fell short of market expectations (-0.1%) with a reading of -0.3%, continuing the decline from the previous figure of 0.2%.

With regards to technical trend indicators, chart analysis show that 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. Asset volatility analysis shows that WTI crude's upper Bollinger Band® is at $74.87 and the lower is $67.03.

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

Data to be released later is expected to clarify investor sentiment while boosting price action volatility as as things stand, upcoming United States Retail Sales data is projected to fall short of market expectations with newly published data of -0.1%, following on from the preceding figure of 0.4%. New data is set to be published today at 12:30 UTC. United States Core Retail Sales projected to come out at 0.1% — worse than previous data of 0.4%; data will be released today at 12:30 UTC. United States Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index (Jun) is scheduled for today at 12:30 UTC.

WTI crude is now trading 1.52% above the significant low ($67.25) it slumped to 3 days ago.