Crude oil markets continue to struggle a bit during the day on Thursday, in relatively flat trading. I think most of this is simply the market taken a bit of a breather after the massive selloff that we have seen, and of course as it typically will do just ahead of the jobs number which come out tomorrow.
The WTI Crude Oil market is trading at roughly $65 on the front month, showing signs of consolidation and perhaps base building. However, I’m not willing to jump into this market right now, as we will certainly need some type of spike in demand or something to that effect. I do believe that oil is oversold at this point, and a bounce is probably likely. Keep in mind that the Iranian sanctions are coming, but at the same time the Iranians seem to be finding customers in both Europe and China. If that continues to be the case, then the sanctions probably won’t matter much.
Brent markets also look very skittish during the day, but certainly look like they need to bounce. We are approaching the $75 level as I record this, which of course is a large come around, psychologically significant figure, and I also see quite a bit of resistance at both $76 and $77. I think if we get a bounce, we will stop at one of those two areas in turn around and fall apart. If we were to break above the $77 level then I would be willing to say that the longer-term uptrend has reasserted itself. In the meantime though, I think between now and the jobs number it’s going to be difficult to see big moves in either one of these commodities, so short-term scalping might end up being your best opportunity.
Being FXEmpire’s analyst since the early days of the website, Chris has over 20 years of experience across various markets and assets – currencies, indices, and commodities. He is a proprietary trader as well trading institutional accounts.