WTI hits fresh weekly highs above $42.50 amid vaccine optimism

WTI rises for the fourth straight session on Monday.
Progress over covid vaccine trials lifts market mood, oil.
Bullish bets on US oil futures raised last week.

Dhwani Mehta FXStreet

WTI (futures on NYMEX) trades better bid in Asia this Monday, close to the highest levels in eight days reached at $42.56.

Having booked a third consecutive weekly rise last week, the black gold is looking to build onto its last week’s surge, as the sentiment remains underpinned by the successful covid vaccine trials across the globe.

The UK is likely to give a green-light to Pfizer’s vaccine this week while a US official said that the vaccinations in the country will “hopefully” start in less than three weeks.

The vaccine optimism implies that life could return to normalcy in 2021, easing off global economic concerns while lifting the prospects for oil demand recovery. The upbeat market mood, also due to a likely Brexit deal this week, benefits the higher-yielding oil further.

Also, expectations that the OPEC and its allies (OPEC+) will keep the oil output curbs in place for longer collaborated with the upside in the US oil. The alliance meets on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 and is considering options to delay output hike by at least three months from January.

In evidence of increased speculative interest in WTI, money managers raised their net long US crude futures and options positions in the week to Nov. 17 by 3,100 contracts to 277,080, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday, per Reuters.

However, fresh covid restrictions imposed in the American cities, amid the continued rise in new infections, could cap the gains in the WTI barrel. Looking ahead, the focus remains on the covid stats and US Markit Manufacturing PMIs for near-term trading opportunities in oil.

WTI technical levels

The next target for the bulls awaits at Wednesday’s high of $42.68, above which the $43 threshold will get tested. However, if the sellers fight back control, the US oil could drop back towards strong support near 41.95/90 region, where the falling trendline resistance now support coincides with the 50-hourly moving average (HMA).

WTI additional levels

WTI

Overview
Today last price	42.49
Today Daily Change	0.04
Today Daily Change %	0.09
Today daily open	42.44

Trends
Daily SMA20	39.66
Daily SMA50	39.92
Daily SMA100	40.63
Daily SMA200	37.01

Levels
Previous Daily High	42.57
Previous Daily Low	41.65
Previous Weekly High	42.68
Previous Weekly Low	40.36
Previous Monthly High	41.93
Previous Monthly Low	35.08
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	42.22
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	42
Daily Pivot Point S1	41.87
Daily Pivot Point S2	41.3
Daily Pivot Point S3	40.95
Daily Pivot Point R1	42.79
Daily Pivot Point R2	43.14
Daily Pivot Point R3	43.71

Author

Dhwani Mehta

FXStreet

Residing in Mumbai (India), Dhwani is a Senior Analyst and Manager of the Asian session at FXStreet. She has over 10 years of experience in analyzing and covering the global financial markets, with specialization in Forex and commodities markets.

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