WTI trades back up to above $84 on the day
There has been some exhaustion to the upside momentum but buyers are not exactly letting up either, keeping a defense at the recent lows around $80.79 last week before seizing back near-term control now on a push above its key hourly moving averages:
The $85 mark still poses a modest resistance point on the daily chart but the fundamentals continue to look solid for oil as we look towards next year.
A Bloomberg report highlighted that China's stockpiles are down to their lowest since February 2020 and that creates more headaches for local authorities who are already needing to deal with the power crunch amid shortages of coal and natural gas.
As such, that could see state enterprises come in to replenish inventories even as prices are at elevated levels i.e. underscoring added demand for crude stocks.
OPEC+ will also be meeting later this week so there's that to factor into consideration but I doubt the bloc will do much to shake up the status quo for the time being.