WTI drops to the five-month lows below $70.00 amid China’s oil demand concern

WTI extends its downside below $70.00, the lowest since July.
China has seen arrivals of 10.33 million barrels per day (bpd), down 10.4% from October's reading.
Oil traders are worried that OPEC+ failed to reach a unanimous agreement on production targets.
US weekly Jobless Claims data will be due later on Thursday.

Lallalit Srijandorn FXStreet

Western Texas Intermediate (WTI), the US crude oil benchmark, is trading around $69.80 on Thursday. WTI prices decline to the lowest since July as investors are worried about China’s oil demand growth and the effectiveness of the OPEC+ voluntary production cut.

According to data released on Thursday by the General Administration of Customs, China, the world's top oil importer, has seen arrivals of 10.33 million barrels per day (bpd). This figure was down 10.4% from October's 11.53 million bpd and 9.3% lower than the same month the previous year. This, in turn, has fuelled worries about the Chinese economy and exerts some selling pressure on WTI prices.

Apart from this, US crude oil inventories dropped by 4.632M barrels for the week ending December 1 from the previous reading of 1.609M rise, according to the Energy Information Agency (EIA) on Wednesday.

Oil markets are also dissatisfied that OPEC+, which includes OPEC members and allies like Russia, will be able to deliver on 2.2 million bpd production cuts in the first quarter of next year. Nonetheless, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak attempted to reassure the market this week that the announced supply cuts might be extended or perhaps deepened.

Moving on, oil traders will focus on the US weekly Jobless Claims data on Thursday, which is expected to rise by 222K for the week ending December 1. On Friday, the highly anticipated US Nonfarm Payrolls will be in the spotlight. These events could significantly impact the USD-denominated WTI price. Oil traders will take cues from the data and find trading opportunities around WTI prices.

WTI US OIL

Overview
Today last price	69.83
Today Daily Change	0.35
Today Daily Change %	0.50
Today daily open	69.48

Trends
Daily SMA20	75.68
Daily SMA50	80.76
Daily SMA100	82.15
Daily SMA200	77.85

Levels
Previous Daily High	72.76
Previous Daily Low	69.31
Previous Weekly High	79.62
Previous Weekly Low	74.04
Previous Monthly High	83.34
Previous Monthly Low	72.39
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	70.63
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	71.44
Daily Pivot Point S1	68.27
Daily Pivot Point S2	67.06
Daily Pivot Point S3	64.81
Daily Pivot Point R1	71.72
Daily Pivot Point R2	73.97
Daily Pivot Point R3	75.18

Author

Lallalit Srijandorn

FXStreet

Lallalit Srijandorn is a Parisian at heart. She has lived in France since 2019 and now becomes a digital entrepreneur based in Paris and Bangkok.

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