Crude oil continues slump despite inventory contraction

Inventory drawdown surprise failed to halt decline.
Demand failing to keep up with oversupply.

Joshua Gibson FXStreet

Crude oil was unable to hold itself up following Wednesday trading and has slid further with WTI testing 61.00 per barrel after dipping to 60.74.

API crude oil inventories provided temporary solace for oil prices after showing a surprise contraction in oil stores of 900,000 barrels, a welcome miss from the anticipated million barrel surplus traders were anticipating. The buoyancy was shortlived, and oil prices have resumed slumping heading into the London market session.

As American oil supply continues near record levels and OPEC struggles to stem production in the face of a massive supply glut, oil prices will continue to be biased towards the downside, as upticks in demand for fossil fuels are still unable to eat up the record pileups in crude stocks.

Crude Technicals

Crude prices are remarkably off their 2018 highs and the recent retracements were shortlived following Brent's bounce from 62.00 and WTI's 58.11 low. Support is priced in for WTI and Brent at 59.70 and 63.15 respectively, while WTI resistance prices in at 62.60 and Brent sees resistance at 65.80.

Author

Joshua Gibson

FXStreet

Joshua joins the FXStreet team as an Economics and Finance double major from Vancouver Island University with twelve years' experience as an independent trader focusing on technical analysis.

EUR/USD holds firm near 1.1850 amid USD weakness

EUR/USD remains strongly bid around 1.1850 in European trading on Monday. The USD/JPY slide-led broad US Dollar weakness helps the pair build on Friday's recovery ahead of the Eurozone Sentix Investor Confidence data for February.

GBP/USD holds medium-term bullish bias above 1.3600

The GBP/USD pair trades on a softer note around 1.3605 during the early European session on Monday. Growing expectation of the Bank of England’s interest-rate cut weighs on the Pound Sterling against the Greenback.

Gold remains supported by China's buying and USD weakness as traders eye US data

Gold struggles to capitalize on its intraday move up and remains below the $5,100 mark heading into the European session amid mixed cues. Data released over the weekend showed that the People's Bank of China extended its buying spree for a 15th month in January. Moreover, dovish US Fed expectations and concerns about the central bank's independence drag the US Dollar lower for the second straight day, providing an additional boost to the non-yielding yellow metal.

Cardano steadies as whale selling caps recovery

Cardano (ADA) steadies at $0.27 at the time of writing on Monday after slipping more than 5% in the previous week. On-chain data indicate a bearish trend, with certain whales offloading ADA. However, the technical outlook suggests bearish momentum is weakening, raising the possibility of a short-term relief rebound if buying interest picks up.

Japanese PM Takaichi nabs unprecedented victory – US data eyed this week

I do not think I would be exaggerating to say that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s snap general election gamble paid off over the weekend – and then some. This secured the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) an unprecedented mandate just three months into her tenure.

Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple consolidate after massive sell-off

Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple prices consolidated on Monday after correcting by nearly 9%, 8%, and 10% in the previous week, respectively. BTC is hovering around $70,000, while ETH and XRP are facing rejection at key levels. Traders should be cautious: despite recent stabilization, upside recovery for these top three cryptocurrencies is capped as the broader trend remains bearish.