WTI crude down 20 cents

A bit of oil momentum has turned into another dead-cat bounce. WTI crude is down 21-cents to $44.53 after briefly trading above $45.00 in North American trading.

Zooming out, oil is trying to fund support in the $42-$44 zone but the way today's bounce was wiped out isn't encouraging.

On Friday, the Baker Hughes US oil rig count showed a 22nd consecutive week of rising rigs as the number hit 747. Combine that with persistently high inventories of US oil and gasoline and a played-out OPEC and it's tough to make any kind of case for oil gains from here.