Without a clear-cut direction, Heating Oil Futures is trading around $3.29 per gallon and ranging between $3.26 and $3.34.
NYMEX Heating Oil's state is reflected by market data as United States Crude Oil Inventories beat analyst expectations of -1.52 million and the previous reading of -5.89 million with new data of 718,000. Highly important Initial Jobless Claims data from United States beat analyst expectations of 225,000 with a reading of 225,000. United States Chicago PMI (Dec) came out at 44.9, while a consensus of analysts was expecting 40.
Heating Oil made an initial break below its 5 day Simple Moving Average at $3.28, a possible indication of a forthcoming negative trend. On the other hand, note that Heating Oil Futures is approaching key support, around 4 cents away from $3.25. Dipping below could indicate further losses are ahead while a failure to break below this level is likely to be seen positively by market bulls.
Despite the market lacking direction, technical chart analysis strongly suggests NYMEX Heating Oil is positioned for a downward move in the near term.
Meanwhile, mixed performances are seen in other Energy as Natural Gas slumps 2.94% to trade around $4.42. Crude Oil trades with no major change, around $78.83. Brent Crude Oil moves 0.13% to trade around $82.37.
8 months ago NYMEX Heating Oil reached a significant high of $4.94 but has consequently lost 33% since then.