Today at 14:30 UTC: United States Crude Oil Inventories, Brent crude steady at $72.16

Without a clear-cut direction, Brent crude is trading around $72.16 per barrel and ranging between $71.58 and $72.95.

• United States Crude Oil Inventories is next.
• While mostly sideways today, Brent crude is on a 6 day bearish trend during which it lost $4.89.

Earlier data releases related to ICE Brent crude – United States New Home Sales (May) released yesterday at 14:00 UTC with a figure of 763,000, while the previous figure was 680,000. United States Consumer Confidence came out at 109.7, better than analyst estimates of 104 and improving upon the previous reading of 102.5.

Here is the technical analysis of Brent crude oil before macro data is released:

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. ICE Brent crude is currently flirting with an active Fibonacci support level around $72. Asset volatility analysis shows that Brent crude's upper Bollinger Band® is at $77.88 and the lower is $71.83. Support/Resistance levels obtained from chart analysis indicate that Brent crude is approaching key support, around 78 cents away from $71.38. 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.

With market volatility ebbing, the current technical outlook indicates Brent crude oil will remain range-bound for the immediate future.

Coming up for ICE Brent crude — United States Crude Oil Inventories is projected to outperform its last figure with -1.76 million. It previously stood at -3.83 million; data will be released today at 14:30 UTC. Tomorrow at 12:30 UTC data for United States GDP will be released, with an expected decline to 1.4 from the preceding figure of 2.6.

As the markets get ready for more data to be released — Natural Gas slides down 2.39% to trade around $2.7.

Over the past a year, Brent crude has retreated 38.75% from a noteworthy peak of $118.