WTI Crude Oil Futures (September)
Last week’s close: Settled at 55.76, up 0.34 on Friday and down 4.54 on the week
Fundamentals: Crude Oil is up about 1% this morning but trading off its overnight high of 57.04. Price action was suppressed through much of Friday until news broke that Iran seized a British tanker. Tensions with Iran are high and U.K Prime Minister May called an emergency meeting. Bloomberg’s latest headline reads ‘Iran to Execute Members of Alleged CIA-Trained Spy Network’. Traders must keep an ear to the ground as situations with Iran are not subsiding soon. Another factor supporting prices was an outage in Libya Friday. However, news that production is back to half capacity has reined in the tape.
Technicals: With geopolitical tensions at a height, price action could not get out above major three-star resistance at 56.92-57.19 and this does not bode well for Crude. Given the tremendous damage last week, Crude is attempting to create a downtrend, one that can only be neutralized above this major three-star support level. Our pivot, as discussed Friday aligns multiple levels, but below here the bears are in the driver’s seat.
Bias: Neutral
Resistance: 56.49*, 56.92-57.19***, 58.14-58.49***
Pivot: 55.96-56.15
Support: 55.47-55.67*, 54.92-55.10***