WTI steady above the 50-DMA at $76.30s

US crude oil benchmark, Western Texas Intermediate (WTI), advances during the New York session, trading at $76.39 at the time of writing. Studies on the newly discovered Covid-19 strain Omicron have shown that it causes mild symptoms in people infected. Additionally, people infected with Omicron, but vaccinated at least with two shots, are 50% to 80% less subject of hospitalization.

That said, oil investors reacted positively, pushing WTI prices from $68.50 up to $77.20 in the last eight days, a gain of almost 12.7%, piercing on its way north, critical technical levels, like the 100-day moving average (DMA) and the 50-DMA.

In the meantime, the US Energy and Information Administration (EIA) reported that oil inventories fell in the last week. Oil stockpiles fell by 3.6 million barrels, from 3.1 million estimated by analysts. However, US crude oil production increased to its highest level since May 2020, up to 11.8 million barrels, the highest in 19 months.

WTI Price Forecast: Technical outlook

WTI’s daily chart depicts that black gold has an upward bias. In fact, price action pierced the 50-day moving average (DMA) at $76.05, struggling at the $77.00 handle, retreating towards current levels. Nevertheless, the dip appears to be an opportunity for oil bulls, to re-enter the market at better price levels than Wednesday’s daily high at $77.19.

US crude oil’s first resistance level would be December’s 28 daily high at $76.75. A breach of the latter would open the door for further gains. The next ceiling level would be December’s 29 high at $77.19, followed by November 24 cycle high at $79.02.