WTI stays in red below $67 ahead of Baker Hughes’ weekly report

• Risk-off mood weighs on commodities on Friday.
• Saudi Arabia stands ready to meet demand.
• Coming up: Baker Hughes’ weekly rig count.

After rising for the second straight day on Thursday, crude oil prices failed to push higher on Friday with the barrel of West Texas Intermediate turning red below the $67 handle. As of writing, WTI was trading at $66.65, losing 30 cents, or, 0.4%, on a daily basis.

Yesterday, the upbeat market sentiment allowed commodities to stage a modest recovery. However, with global equity indexes, once again, recording heavy losses on Friday, concerns over the negative impact of a potential economic slowdown on the global oil demand resurfaced. At the moment, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 indexes are down 1.85% and 2.4%, respectively, to reflect the flight-to-safety.

Furthermore, Saudi OPEC governor yesterday told Reuters that they were ready to ramp up their production in case the U.S. sanctions on Iran oil exports would cause a shortage of demand.

Later in the day, Baker Hughes Energy Services will publish its weekly report, which showed an increase in the number of active oil rigs in the past two publications.  

Technical levels to consider

The WTI could face the first technical resistance at $68 (Aug. 22 high) ahead of $69.30 (Aug. 24 high) and $70 (psychological level/50-DMA). On the downside, supports are located at $65.70 (Oct. 23 low), $64.50 (Aug. 15 low) and $63.60 (Jun. 18 low).