Crude oil prices trickled lower yesterday on trade war concerns and news that Russia will dissent in the OPEC meeting in December. WTI crude oil closed at $55.10 from opening at $56.86. Currently, crude oil price is steady at $55.10 as of 8:39 am GMT, November 20, 2019.
The biggest forex news today was the move by the US Senate last night to interfere in the ongoing protests in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Human Rights and Diplomacy Act was passed and it aims to ban the sale of certain munitions to Hong Kong police. The news comes at a time when US and China are nearing the December 15 deadline for the implementation of tariffs on Chinese goods. Of course, lack of positive and tangible updates regarding negotiations only spurred speculations that the two countries may not come into a deal.
Another reason why crude oil prices moved lower was because of news ahead of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) meeting on December 5. Russia, one of the world’s major producers of crude oil, is reportedly against calls to cut production even further.
Later today, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) will release their data on oil inventories at 3:30pm GMT. The report is expected to show that 1.4 million barrels of oil were held in storage by commercial firms.
On the daily chart of WTI crude, we can see that crude oil prices are trading below support from the rising trend line (connecting the lows for October 3, October 10, October 21, and October 31). As of this writing, it is hovering around the $55/barrel mark. If crude oil inventories print higher than expected or if risk aversion continues, the next support levels to watch out for will be $54.00, $52,60, and $51.15 where crude oil price previously bottomed in October.
On the other hand, if buyers push prices higher today, we could see WTI Crude test resistance around $56.52 where it found resistance on October 28.Download our latest quarterly market outlook for our longer-term trade ideas.