The oil markets have rallied a bit in the early hours of Friday, but at this point we still see a bit of resistance above that could come into play here.
Crude oil has been somewhat bullish over the last couple of days, and the West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil Market now is above the 200-day EMA. The question is whether or not we can continue to go higher, and if we do, then I think we break above the $80 level. The $80 level, of course, is a large round psychology-driven number that a lot of people will pay close attention to, if we clear that barrier, I suspect more money will come in and chase the market. In the short term, there are plenty of buyers underneath from here to $77, so any pullback is probably just going to be a continuation of the overall consolidation that we have seen.
In general, this is a market that has been very bullish until recently due to a whole litany of things, not the least of which would be the time of year, but we also have the geopolitical concerns coming out of the Middle East. They haven’t actually gone anywhere. It’s probably worth noting that the recent pullback found the 50% Fibonacci retracement level, so that could be an argument for technical traders to buy it as well.
The Brent market looks very much the same, and again, pulled back to a Fibonacci retracement level, namely the 50% level and now looks as if it is threatening the $84.50 level. I think given enough time, it’s likely that Brent follows right along the same path, and we go higher. Inflation isn’t going anywhere and typically that’s good for oil. Furthermore, you have to keep in mind that this is a time of year when there’s a lot more travel and demand does pick up quite drastically.
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Chris is a proprietary trader with more than 20 years of experience across various markets, including currencies, indices and commodities. As a senior analyst at FXEmpire since the website’s early days, he offers readers advanced market perspectives to navigate today’s financial landscape with confidence.