crude oil price
Crude oil prices traded in a tight range yesterday. WTI crude opened the day at $57.77 and tested it weekly highs at $58.44. By the end of Tuesday’s trading, crude oil prices had settled at $58.21.
The commodity found some bids yesterday as OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) announced the date for a highly-anticipated meeting. The Joint Technical Committee (JTC) will meet on December 3. This is the board that discusses the critical details before the OPEC announces production cuts on December 5. OPEC+ members, which includes Russia, will then join the meetings on December 6.
For today, crude oil prices will likely take their cue from the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) report on inventories. It is expected that the number of barrels held in storage by commercial firms declined by 500,000 in the week ending in November 21.
A lower-than-expected figure will be bullish for oil. It is because that would mean that the US, which is one of the largest consumers of the commodity, will need to buy more to fill its inventories. A close above this month’s highs at $58.60 means that the next resistance level is at $60.74 where crude oil prices topped in July 2019.
On the other hand, a higher-than-expected figure could send WTI crude lower to test support at yesterday’s lows at $57.67. If this level does not hold, we could see crude oil prices trade around last week’s lows at $55.06.Download our latest quarterly market outlook for our longer-term trade ideas.