- Crude oil was on the defensive Tuesday, weighed down by concerns about the launch of vaccines in Europe and weak data from the United States.
- WTI is currently consolidating just above $ 64.00.
As has been the case since the start of the week, crude oil markets continue to trade on a negative bias and the US benchmark for light sweet crude, called WTI, is now consolidating just above $ 64.00 (per barrel), down around 2.0% or $ 1.30 in the session.
Keep in mind that the rest of the WTI futures timeframe is in backwardation (meaning that crude oil prices fall with each advancing month), which has long-term bullish implications, as it implies strength in demand in the medium term.
Performance of the day
In terms of supply-side news, crude oil traders have had very little to lose so far this week. Attention has been largely focused on demand-side factors and thus news about eurozone countries halting the launch of the AstraZeneca vaccine (despite the fact that the central health authority of the EU has just come out and witnessed the safety of the vaccine, together with the UK authorities) all this affected oil prices; The launch of the vaccine in the EU is already advancing at a snail’s pace compared to that of the UK and the US and has already prompted some energy analysts to lower their crude oil demand growth forecasts this year ( given expectations of a slower European economic rebound). The latest actions will further delay the euro zone’s march towards herd immunity and thus further delay its recovery.
Recent data from the US has not helped either; US retail sales fell more than expected in February, but that mainly represents the waning momentum from the January stimulus controls. Retail sales will no doubt pick up again in March after the government hands out another $ 1,400 to every American citizen. More worrisome was the larger-than-expected drop in industrial production in February and this appears to have added to the selling pressure of crude oil; Analysts note that bad weather conditions last month contributed to the drop, but also note that global supply shortages also played a factor and this could be a longer lasting drag.
Attention will now turn to publishing weekly private API crude oil inventory numbers; The data is likely to remain distorted by the impact of February’s weather changes, with crude inventories rising in recent weeks, but gasoline and distillate inventories falling as US refineries have taken longer to deliver. recover from bad weather that oil producers.
Technical levels
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