WTI up almost 0.50% in Asia

WTI has advanced over 0.4% in Asia today, travelling from a low of $58.68 to a high of $59.10 so far as markets get set for the next leg of the Suadi attack noise with a Saudi Defence Ministry press conference arranged for later today at  1430GMT.

The Saudis will show evidence of Iran's involvement in the Aramco attacks and will show Iranian weapons that were used in the attacks. US Vice President Mike Pence said on Tuesday the United States was evaluating evidence on the attacks on Saudi oil facilities as well and stands ready to defend its interests and allies in the Middle East.

"We're evaluating all the evidence. We're consulting with our allies. And the president will determine the best course of action in the days ahead."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was also travelling to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. Pence also said that if Iran conducted Saturday's attacks to pressure President Donald Trump to back off his sanctions regime against Tehran, they will fail.  For now, the markets do not know whether Saudi Arabia or the U.S. is going to respond militarily or choose to tread more diplomatically, but sanctions were proposed by Trump as a measure of retaliation. 

For the meantime, the Saudi Energy Minister played down the damage to their facilities and proclaimed that supply will continue to meet demand and that production will be back to full capacity by the end of this month. attention is likely to turn to the latest weekly U.S. petroleum supplies figures in Energy Information Administration Wednesday morning. We will also have the Federal Reserve today, expected to cut rates of 25 basis points. 

WTI levels

Technically, the price surged to the vicinity of a 127.20% Fibonacci extension of the July swing highs to Aug swing lows but has since moved back, swiftly, to the 78.6% Fibo of the same range and prior Sep' highs in the 58.50/70s. A break below there will open the 61.8% Fibo and Aug resistance just below the 57 handle. On a re-escalation of fundamentals, the April highs at 66.58 will be back in the picture.