While on a 9 day slump, falling a total of 13.06%, More of the same today: US crude oil is down to $77.34 per barrel, after ending yesterday at $77.94. Overall, a 0.77% loss or 60 cents today.
United States Crude Oil Inventories released earlier showed a marked improvement to -3.69 million from the preceding data of -5.4 million, but fell short of the -1 million figure forecast by a consensus of market analysts.
On the flip side, positive data for West Texas crude released earlier when highly important Core Durable Goods Orders data from United States beat analyst expectations of 0.1% with a reading of 0.5%.
While price action maintains a negative bias, United States New Home Sales (Oct) released yesterday at 15:00 UTC with a figure of 632,000, while the previous figure was 588,000.
Trend and momentum analysis indicates that the Commodity Channel Index (CCI) indicator is below -100, meaning the market price is unusually low and below its rolling moving average. Technical analysis indicates that a new, strong downtrend could be forthcoming with short positions favored. According to asset volatility analysis, West Texas crude's lower Bollinger Band® is at $76.82, indicating that the asset has overextended to the downside and could, therefore, bounce back as buyers look for bargains.
Overall, the technical outlook suggests WTI crude is likely to remain muted for the immediate future, with no clear-cut direction.
Approximately 8 months ago, US crude oil reached a significant high of $124.77 but has struggled to hold onto its gains and declined 37.53% since then.