Crude Oil Price Forecast – crude oil markets close out the week on a strong note

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Updated: Aug 18, 2018, 05:12 UTC

Crude oil markets rally during the day on Friday, as tensions between the United States and China seem to be abating a bit. Beyond that, the US dollar did soften a bit so that also helped. However, there was a horrific inventory number earlier in the week but that number tends to be volatile.

WTI Crude Oil

The WTI Crude Oil market rallied significantly during the day on Friday, reaching as high as $66.40 before pulling back a bit. That being the case, it looks as if we are making a serious attempt at turning things around, or perhaps traders simply do not want to be short of oil going into the weekend. Either way, we have saved ourselves at a major uptrend line, so it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. If we can break above the $66.50 level, we could make a serious move towards $68. Otherwise, if we turn around and lose the $65 level again, this market could unwind rather drastically, especially if there strong trading in the US dollar.

Brent

Brent markets also rallied but gave back quite a bit of the gains, causing me a bit of concern. The $71 level underneath offers plenty of support, but the $72.50 level above is plenty of resistance. As things look now, Brent has lagged WTI for some time, and may continue to do. The US dollar will have its say in this market as well, so if it strengthens that could send oil lower. There’s also concerns about Iranian oil coming off line, so that of course could be bullish. In short, I think this market is going to continue to be extraordinarily volatile and sideways overall.

Crude Oil Inventories Video 20.08.18

About the Author

Christopher Lewisauthor

Being FXEmpire’s analyst since the early days of the website, Chris has over 20 years of experience across various markets and assets – currencies, indices, and commodities. He is a proprietary trader as well trading institutional accounts.