West Texas crude fell to a new low at $71.5 today, its lowest value in 2 months; yesterday ended at $71.66.

This uncertain state for US crude oil is reflected by published market data as United States JOLTs Job Openings (Mar) released yesterday at 14:00 UTC with a figure of 9.59 million, while the previous figure was 9.97 million. United States API Weekly Crude Oil Stock came out at -3.94 million, while a consensus of analysts was expecting -1,000,000. United States Factory Orders released earlier showed a marked improvement to 0.9% from the preceding data of -1.1%, but fell short of the 1.1% figure forecast by a consensus of market analysts.

As the day gets underway, chart analysis suggests Crude Oil is approaching key support, around $1.67 away from $69.94. 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. Analysis based on the asset volatility indicates that WTI crude oil's upper Bollinger Band® is at $85 and the lower is $71.29.

Overall, technical indicators suggest West Texas crude has no obvious direction for the immediate future.

Meanwhile, mixed performances are seen in other Energy as Natural Gas moves 0.54% to trade around $2.23.

Data to be released later is expected to clarify investor sentiment while boosting price action volatility as United States Crude Oil Inventories is projected to outperform its last figure with -1.1 million. It previously stood at -5 million; data will be released today at 14:30 UTC. United States Interest Rate figure is projected at 5.25. It previously stood at five; data will be released today at 18:00 UTC. Tomorrow at 12:30 UTC data for United States Initial Jobless Claims will be released, with an expected decline to 240,000 from the preceding figure of 230,000. United States Services PMI is expected today at 13:45 UTC.

US crude oil has fallen back around 41.31% over the past 10 months, from a notable high of $122.09.