The benchmark U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude Crude oil traders will be monitoring news of the Omicron coronavirus (Covid-19) variant. Pfizer BioNTech says that their two vaccine doses plus booster shot is effective oil futures contract has broken above $72.50 per barrel and is changing above $72.90 per barrel. The WTI contract has seen three days of gains but has failed to close above $72.80.
Crude oil traders will be monitoring news of the Omicron coronavirus (Covid-19) variant. Pfizer BioNTech says that their two vaccine doses plus booster shot is effective against the aggressive new pandemic variant. Other lab studies, done in Europe, indicate this might not be the case. If the world can avoid lockdowns, this will be good for oil demand.
In other geopolitical news, other countries, including Australia, will boycott the Being Olympic Games on a diplomatic level. These moves follow the United States who announced, on Tuesday, their diplomatic boycott. Russia also continues to amass troops on the Ukrainian border.
Germany will release monthly trade balance data. The world’s biggest economy, the United States, will publish weekly initial and continuing jobless claims from the Labor Department. RICS will release their monthly housing price balance for the United Kingdom. Canada has no key economic data scheduled for publication on Thursday.
Daily US Crude Oil Technical Report
Looking at the above four hour MT 4 price chart, the relative strength index (RSI) looks positive and not in overbought territory which could signal more gains for the US crude oil contract.
On the upside, there is strong technical resistance at the 100 hour simple moving average around $73.80 per barrel for the WTI contract. The next upside barrier will bring 200 hour simple moving average around $77 per barrel. The next layer of technical resistance at $80 per barrel.
On the downside, there is immediate technical support in play at $72 per barrel with $69 then coming into focus. Further down is the multi-month low at $62.35 per barrel which was recently in play a week ago.