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WTI trading at $ 45.00 despite assassination of top Iranian nuclear scientist

  • WTI Crude Oil is currently trading just below the day’s highs at $ 43.30 and remains within recent intraday ranges.
  • Crude oil markets did not respond to recent confirmation by Iranian officials that Iran’s top nuclear scientist had been killed.

Crude oil WTI It is currently trading right at the highs of the day at $ 45.30, up about 20 cents or 0.5% on the day. However, the US benchmark for light sweet crude oil is largely still right in the middle of recent intraday ranges.

Just hours ago, Iranian officials confirmed that Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, had been killed near the capital city of Tehran. Fakhrizadeh was long suspected of being behind a secret Iranian nuclear program, and a Western diplomat told Reuters in 2014 that if Iran created a nuclear bomb, Fakhrizadeh would be its “father.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif immediately condemned the attack and claimed there are serious indications of an Israeli role in the attack. Meanwhile, an army general vowed revenge on state television.

Market commentators were quick to point out that the attack, regardless of who orchestrated it, is likely to increase the chances of an Iranian counterattack, potentially putting crude oil supplies in the region at risk in the short term. But the oil markets, apparently completely asleep on the news, didn’t budge at all.

Amid weak trade at 18:45 GMT the energy market is nearing close, given the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, perhaps the lack of volatility in crude oil markets is not surprising. Besides, merchants have other things on their minds;

The OPEC + cartel of major oil producers will meet over the weekend and through Monday, after which a three-month extension of current production cuts through the first quarter of 2021 is now the base case expectation. . If the cartel fails to extend the production cuts, this could trigger a significant drop in WTI. Other market commentators point to the risk of a “buy the rumor, sell the fact” reaction even if the cartel lives up to expectations.

WTI content will range from $ 44.00 – $ 46.00

For now, crude oil markets appear to be forging into a short-term range, within which trade is likely to remain contained until the full return of US players to the market, probably next Tuesday; the upper limit of this range appears to be the low of $ 46.00, while the lower limit appears to be the upper of $ 44.00.

The positive for WTI is that there is not much short-term support, given how quickly prices fell to $ 40.00 in March, when the Covid-19 panic began. The next bullish level to watch out for is the early February lows, just below the $ 50 psychological level. On the downside, the previous high of post-pandemic selloff at $ 43.78 has yet to be retested and is likely to offer strong support.

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