WTI consolidates near weekly top, just below mid-$76.00s amid Middle East tensions

WTI maintains its bullish bias after Israel rejected Hamas's ceasefire deal.
A combination of factors keeps a lid on any further appreciating move.
The black liquid remains on track to register strong weekly gains.

Haresh Menghani FXStreet

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) US Crude Oil prices struggle to capitalize on strong weekly gains registered over the past four days and oscillate in a narrow trading band through the first half of the European session on Friday. The commodity, however, holds steady above the $76.00/barrel mark, or the weekly top and remains well within the striking distance of a technically significant 200-day Simple Moving Average (SMA).

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected a proposal to end the war in the Palestinian enclave, raising the risk of a further escalation of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East – the major Oil producing region. This comes on top of the continuous US strikes against Iran-backed Houthi targets in Yemen, which has been fueling supply concerns and is seen acting as a tailwind for Crude Oil prices. That said, a combination of factors is holding back traders from placing aggressive bullish bets and capping the upside.

Investors remain concerned about a weaker demand outlook in the wake of slowing economic growth in China – the world's top Oil importer. Adding to this, output from Norway and Guyana is increasing, while Russia is exporting more crude in February in the wake of damage to refineries from Ukraine's drone attacks and technical outages. This, to a larger extent, offsets the US refinery maintenance, which, along with a bullish US Dollar (USD), bolstered by hawkish Federal Reserve (Fed) expectations, keeps a lid on Crude Oil prices.

Nevertheless, the black liquid remains on track to register strong weekly gains as market participants look forward to the crucial US consumer inflation figures next week for cues about the Fed's rate-cut path. In the meantime, the lower US output growth forecast by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), along with persistent geopolitical risks, might continue to lend some support to Crude Oil prices.

Technical levels to watch

WTI US OIL

Overview
Today last price	76.28
Today Daily Change	-0.11
Today Daily Change %	-0.14
Today daily open	76.39

Trends
Daily SMA20	74.54
Daily SMA50	73.2
Daily SMA100	77.71
Daily SMA200	77.3

Levels
Previous Daily High	76.47
Previous Daily Low	73.64
Previous Weekly High	79.19
Previous Weekly Low	71.83
Previous Monthly High	79.19
Previous Monthly Low	69.41
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	75.39
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	74.72
Daily Pivot Point S1	74.53
Daily Pivot Point S2	72.66
Daily Pivot Point S3	71.69
Daily Pivot Point R1	77.36
Daily Pivot Point R2	78.34
Daily Pivot Point R3	80.2

Author

Haresh Menghani

FXStreet

Haresh Menghani is a detail-oriented professional with 10+ years of extensive experience in analysing the global financial markets.

AUD/USD turns lower toward 0.7000 after mixed Australian jobs data

AUD/USD is losing ground toward 0.7000 in the Asian session on Thursday, following the release of the Australian August jobs report, which showed that the Unemployment Rate rose to 4.6% versus 4.5% expected, while Employment Change beat estimates, arriving at 39.5K. Traders also remain unnerved ahead of the critical Trump-Xi meeting.

USD/JPY keeps the red near 158.00 as Japanese Yen firms up

USD/JPY retreats from three-week highs and holds losses near 158.00 in the Asian session on Thursday. Surging Japanese bond yields lift the Yen amid looming intervention risks, while the US Dollar preserves overnight gains to a two-month high amid hawkish Fed bets and elevated US bond yields.

Gold flat lines below $4,300 as Fed hike bets cap upside ahead of Trump-Xi meet

Gold is consolidating near a one-week low, touched during the Asian session, as traders wait on the sidelines ahead of a crucial meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. Expectations for a major announcement are low, though market players will look for any progress on rare earths, technology restrictions, and an extension of the current US-China truce.

Bitcoin slips to $84,000 on rate hike bets – Worldcoin, Pepe lead losses

Bitcoin (BTC) price trades below $84,000 on Thursday, extending losses after a 2% decline the previous day. The pullback aligns with renewed inflation and rate-hike concerns, as US composite and services PMIs rose to 58.4 and 58.7 in September. Worldcoin (WLD) and Pepe (PEPE) recorded double-digit losses over the last 24 hours, emerging as the worst performers.

US Treasury Secretary Bessent says US-China trade truce extended through January 10

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the United States and China have agreed to extend a bilateral trade truce that was set to expire in November through January 10, Blomoberg reported on Wednesday. This move came after Bessent and China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng held an unscheduled meeting in Washington.

BoJ Recap: Not as hawkish as expected

The Bank of Japan (BoJ) raised its short-term interest-rate target to 1.25% from 1.00% in a 7-2 vote, marking another step in the normalisation of monetary policy and widely matching what everyone has been expecting for weeks.