WTI drops below $ 51 mark ahead of EIA report

WTI (US oil futures on NYMEX) halted a 3-day recovery mode and fell back in the red zone on Thursday, as markets continued to weigh the bearish API crude inventory report, which showed the US crude stockpiles rose by 3.1 million barrels to 468.5 million barrels last week.

Moreover, the sentiment also soured after the IEA left the 2017 global oil demand growth at 1.6m bpd, alongside a rise in the global crude supply by 90k bpd last month. Further, a broad based recovery in the US dollar, following the dovish FOMC minutes induced sharp drop, also collaborated to the renewed weakness seen around the USD-denominated oil.

Attention now turns towards the official US fuel inventory data that will be published later on Thursday by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). At the time of writing, WTI drops -0.80% to 50.89, while Brent declines to $ 56.80.

WTI Technical Levels

Higher-side levels: 51.42 (1-week highs), 52 (round number), 52.43 (Sept 26 high)

Lower-side levels: 50.50 (psychological levels), 50.39/30 (5 & 10-DMA), 49.54 (Oct 10 low)