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April 08, 2023
While US crude oil is on a 7 day uptrend Thursday's session put the brakes on the ongoing uptrend — WTI crude recovered back to $80.46 per barrel after dipping down to $79.65, in a session that followed Wednesday's $80.7 close value.
WTI crude's state is reflected by market data as data for United States Unemployment Rate published yesterday at 12:30 UTC came out at 3.5, beating projections of 3.6 and showing improvement over the preceding figure of 3.6. United States Non Farm Payrolls published yesterday at 12:30 UTC came out at 236,000, falling short of the 239,000 projections and continuing its decline from the previous 326,000 figure. United States CFTC Crude Oil speculative net positions released yesterday at 20:30 UTC with a figure of 226,100, while the previous figure was 181,100.
Crude Oil made an initial break below its 5 day Simple Moving Average at $79.74, a possible indication of a forthcoming negative trend. WTI crude's upper Bollinger Band® is at $82.61, suggesting that a downward move may follow. In contrast, WTI crude is oscillating around the $79.75 level serving as support.
Despite the market lacking direction, technical chart analysis strongly suggests WTI crude is positioned for a downward move in the near term.
While US crude oil was pretty flat Thursday, mixed performances were seen elsewhere as a flat day for Natural Gas, closing at $2.04.
9 months ago WTI crude reached a significant high of $122.09 but has consequently lost 33.9% since then.
