WTI upside capped near $51.00

Crude oil prices are extending the march north at the beginning of the week, lifting the West Texas Intermediate to the boundaries of the $51.00 mark per barreal, although losing some momentum soon afterwards.

WTI firm post-data

Crude oil prices found initial support following Friday’s report from driller Baker Hughes, recording the second drop in oil rig count, this time by 7 to 749 active oil rigs during the week ended on September 15.

In addition, US refineries are quickly returning to normalcy and recovering the activity after recent hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

Furthermore, recent reports from the IEA and EIA keep pointing to a better tone of crude oil demand in the global markets, propping up the rally in WTI.

Later in the week, the usual reports on US crude oil supplies by the API (Tuesday) and the EIA (Wednesday) are due along with Friday’s oil rig count by Baker Hughes.

On the positioning front, crude oil speculative net longs have eased to 2-week lows in the week to September 12, according to the latest CFTC report.

WTI significant levels

At the moment the barrel of WTI is losing 0.48% at $50.20 facing the immediate support at $49.58 (200-day sma) followed by $49.34 (23.6% Fibo of the August-September up move) and then $48.99 (10-day sma). On the other hand, a surpass of $50.84 (high Sep.18) would aim for $52.00 (high May 25) and then $53.76 (high Apr.12).