- WTI bulls take a breather, as markets await Iran’s response.
- Escalating Mid-East tensions continue to remain oil-positive.
- Eyes on US-Iran developments and US weekly Crude Stocks data.
WTI (oil futures on NYMEX) extends its corrective slide from nine-month highs of $64.72 into Europe, as markets seek to take profits off the table after adding 2% to Friday’s upsurge and in anticipation of any military response from Iran.
The oil-price rally extended on Monday, as the Mid-East tensions heightened after US President Trump threatened sanctions on Iraq, the OPEC No. 2 oil producer, if the US troops were forced to move out of the country.
This follows Friday’s US killing of the Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in an airstrike at the Baghdad International Airport, which sent oil prices nearly 4% higher.
The US-Iran tensions escalated over the weekend after both the countries traded threats, with US saying that it is prepared to retaliate hard should Iran target any Americans or American assets.
Meanwhile, the barrel of WTI also derives support from Friday’s weekly Crude Stocks data published by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The EIA data showed that the US “crude stocks fell by their most since June as exports exceeded 4 million barrels per day for the first time in history”, as cited by Reuters.
The barrel of WTI now looks forward to the weekly US Crude Stocks data due to be published by the Energy Information Administration and fresh development on the US-Iran rift for further moves.
Meanwhile, the shutdown of four east Libyan oil port terminals amid bad weather further collaborated with the bullish streak in the prices. Markets now await any fresh development surrounding the Mid-East tensions for fresh trading impetus.
WTI Technical levels to consider
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