As of Thursday morning, the last day in a holiday shortened week, the May crude oil contract is trading at $64.33 per barrel.  As the market weighed the EIA number yesterday, many market participants are also eyeing what may come to be seen as momentous developments around the world, especially the developments between Saudi Arabia and Russia and first week of trading of a Yuan denominated oil contract. Market participants must monitor any developments regarding the extension of OPEC production curbs/agreements between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

From a technical perspective, the market is consolidating ahead of a three-day weekend, and a number of technical levels pictured below may be considered.  For instance, the market has seen levels such as $66.66, $66.55 and $66.41 act as resistance as trade has headed lower from that point.  Considering the hourly two-point trendlines pictured below, the $64.22 level may be used as a focal point and trade beyond the $64.85 and $63.74 should warrant attention. Of course, this is on an hourly timeframe and there are a number of ways to use these levels through futures and options as well as a combination of both.

Crude Oil May ’18 60min Chart

crude_oil_may18_60min_chart

Michael O'Donnell

Mike started his career in the markets on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade as a trade checker for a local market maker in the Dow Futures pit. This led to interning with an independent introducing broker and going on to work with a number of market participants including: speculating clients, hedge clients, introducing brokers, futures commission merchants, commodity trading advisors, proprietary traders, trading educators, system creators, and a number of international financial market participants.