Oil firm above $50.00 mark, API inventory report eyed

WTI crude oil firmed further, pushing prices back beyond $50.00/barrel mark to a fresh 2016 high on rising worries over supply disruption from Nigeria after fresh militant attacks on Nigeria's oil operations.

After an initial dip to $49.42 on Tuesday, WTI crude oil prices resumed the bullish momentum and rose beyond $50.00 level to hit a fresh 2016 high level of $50.34. The black gold has retraced a bit from 2016 highs and is currently trading around $50.15.

Despite of the fact that key oil producers failed to reach an agreement on production freeze at the latest OPEC meeting, Saudi Arabia's promise not to flood the market has acted as an extra support for buoyant oil prices. Moreover, dimming clarity on the timing of next Fed rate-hike move has led to a fresh bout of weakness for the US Dollar and is eventually benefitting oil prices.

Investors now look forward to the weekly API report on crude inventory, due for release later during NY session ahead of the China's May crude import data and the official EIA report on US stockpiles on Wednesday. 

Technical outlook

Anton Kolhanov, Chief Technical Strategist at Anton Kolhanov notes, "The uptrend may be expected to continue in case the market rises above resistance level 50.00, which will be followed by reaching resistance level 52.70 and 60."

"An downtrend will start as soon, as the pair drops below support level 48.00, which will be followed by moving down to support level 46.00 and 41.00."