WTI down 19-cents to $78.31
Today's trading was a bit like a hangover in the oil market after yesterday's SPR drama but price action was somewhat instructive.
There were competing headlines suggesting OPEC+ would consider pausing planned production increases, or not. I thought we might see more selling on the headlines that said they would stick with the plan but that didn't materialize.
US weekly inventory data was a mixed bag but overall the picture is of a tight market for US petroleum products and Gas Buddy today reported extremely high gasoline demand through Tuesday. That's probably holiday-related but will put inventories back on the agenda.
Technically, we couldn't get back above Friday's high or even seriously test it. I'm a crude bull but I tend to think it was short-term money pilling into the 'sell the fact' trade on the SPR. I flat day like today is a warning sign for those traders and they'll be quick to take profits if some downward momentum comes.
So I think we'll head back for a test of $76 next week and then see what OPEC has to say on Thursday.
