Closed at $73.80 last week
The price of crude oil has settled the day at $71.01. That is up $0.68 on the day or +0.97%
The high reached $71.66.
The low reached $69.84
For the week, the price is down. Last Friday, the contract closed at $73.80.
The low for the week reached $69.23 on Thursday. The high extended to $74.70 on Tuesday. The high water mark on the recent run higher reached $75.27 on July 3rd.
The correction lower this week, stalled near the 50% of the move up from the June 18 low at $69.44. A move below that level will be needed to get the sellers more engaged (and in control).
The falling 100 hour MA at $72.22 is an upside target if the pair is to get more serious about more upside potential.
This week, the weekly EIA crude oil inventory data showed a huge increase of -12633K vs -3788k est. However, the spike higher could not be sustains on the grounds that China might look to throw some tariffs on oil imports. Libya also indicated it would lift restrictions on four Libyan oil ports and said production and exports would return to normal levels. According to reports, Libyan production has fallen from about 1.3 million barrels per day in February to 527,000 barrels per day.
Technically, the price cracked below the 100 and 200 hour MAs (blue and green lines in the chart below) and just kept going lower and lower.
