Crude oil prices sunk on Friday, trimming its early week gains and with West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures settling at $45.57 a barrel, on reports indicating that OPEC’s output is set to raise this July by 145,000 bpd. The report, issued by Petro-Logistics, came ahead the OPEC and non-OPEC oil ministers’ meeting this Monday, when those producers that agreed an output cut last year are set to review the latest developments. In the US, the Baker Hughes report showed that in the week, the number of active rigs drilling for oil fell by 1, to 764. From a technical point of view, the daily chart shows that commodity settled below is 20 SMA, while the Momentum indicator remains flat around its 100 level, but the RSI indicator turned sharply lower, now around 47 anticipating additional declines ahead. Furthermore, WTI settled below the 50% retracement of the latest bullish run, now the immediate resistance at 45.65. In the 4 hours chart, the commodity is also biased lower, as technical indicators maintain their strong downward momentum within negative territory, whilst the 20 SMA gains downward strength above the current level. The immediate support is 45.20, the 61.8% retracement of the mentioned rally.
Support levels: 45.20 44.50 43.80
Resistance levels: 45.90 46.65 47.20
