Today at 14:00 UTC: United States Fed Chair Powell testimony, Brent crude oil steady at $75.61

Without a clear-cut direction, ICE Brent crude is trading around $75.61 per barrel and ranging between $75.38 and $76.38.

• United States Fed Chair Powell testimony is next.
• Brent crude oil has been pretty quiet for the last 8 days, trading mostly flat and moving by only 49.25 cents on average.

Earlier data releases related to ICE Brent crude – United States Building Permits (May) released yesterday at 12:30 UTC with a figure of 1.49 million, while the previous figure was 1.15 million. United States Housing Starts beat analyst expectations of -0.8% and the previous reading of -2.9% with new data of 21.7%.

Technical analysis of Brent crude oil before macro data is released:

Brent Crude Oil is approaching key support, around 99 cents away from $74.62. 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. ICE Brent crude made an initial breakout above its 21 day Simple Moving Average at $75.78, a potential indicator of a newly emerging bullish phase.

Despite muted price action in ICE Brent crude, chart analysis indicates it is positioned for a bullish run in the short term.

Coming up for Brent crude — tomorrow at 15:00 UTC data for United States Crude Oil Inventories will be released, with an expected decline to 1.87 million from the preceding figure of 7.92 million. United States Initial Jobless Claims is projected to outperform its last figure with 260,000. It previously stood at 262,000; data will be released tomorrow at 12:30 UTC.

After hitting an important low of $71.96 approximately 9 days ago, Brent crude has bounced back 5.48% since.