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.

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