WTI Crude rises on geopolitical tensions post US GDP data

WTI up nearly 2%, driven by robust US economy and Middle East tensions.
Red Sea disruptions, including Maersk ship incidents and Russian refinery drone attack, heighten oil supply worries.
US crude stockpile declines due to severe weather and positive Chinese economic recovery signs bolster oil prices.

Christian Borjon Valencia FXStreet

West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the US crude oil benchmark, rose almost 2% on Thursday following the latest release of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures in the United States (US). Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East sponsored the so-called “black gold” leg up, and at the time of writing, Oil trades at $76.82 per barrel after bouncing off a daily low of $75.19.

Oil prices bolstered by Middle East tensions and US stockpile drawdowns

Tensions in the Middle East are causing disruptions in global trade. The recent incident involving Maersk ships that were carrying US military equipment refrained from training into the Red Sea after hearing explosions that forced two ships to retreat despite being escorted by the US Navy.

Meanwhile, sources cited by Reuters commented that energy markets are beginning to reflect supply chain disruptions, linked to the Red Sea conflict. This could underpin Oil prices, which rose for the aforementioned reasons, along with a drone attack on a Russian Oil refinery.

In the meantime, a larger-than-expected draw in crude stockpiles in the US due to extreme cold weather was a tailwind for WTI prices

Meanwhile, expectations that China’s economy is recovering were cheered by Oil bulls following the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) decision to reduce bank reserves on Wednesday.

WTI Technical Levels

Overview
Today last price	77.31
Today Daily Change	1.88
Today Daily Change %	2.49
Today daily open	75.43

Trends
Daily SMA20	72.71
Daily SMA50	73.39
Daily SMA100	79.19
Daily SMA200	77.26

Levels
Previous Daily High	75.8
Previous Daily Low	73.94
Previous Weekly High	74.6
Previous Weekly Low	70.63
Previous Monthly High	76.79
Previous Monthly Low	67.97
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	75.09
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	74.65
Daily Pivot Point S1	74.32
Daily Pivot Point S2	73.2
Daily Pivot Point S3	72.46
Daily Pivot Point R1	76.17
Daily Pivot Point R2	76.92
Daily Pivot Point R3	78.03

Author

Christian Borjon Valencia

FXStreet

Markets analyst, news editor, and trading instructor with over 14 years of experience across FX, commodities, US equity indices, and global macro markets.

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