Oil Caught Between Conflicting Data Points

Oil markets have seesawed since the beginning of the week, torn between data that points towards a bottoming out of prices following an over 50 percent fall over the last year and bearish analysts who see more price falls as oversupply lingers on.

Crude oil prices fell on Tuesday as traders took profit following a 4 percent bounce in the previous session as conflicting market signals tore at prices.

Traders also focused on the soon-to-expire front-month contract in the West Texas Intermediate (WTI), which serves as the U.S. benchmark. WTI’s October contract will go off the NYMEX board after Tuesday’s settlement, and November will move up as the front-month.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were trading at $46.20 per barrel at 2100 EDT, down 48 cents, or one percent, from their last settlement. Globally traded Brent futures were at $48.47 per barrel, down 45 cents.

The dip in prices came after oil rallied on Monday, with U.S crude surging more than 4 percent on signs of declining stockpiles and a fall in drilling activity, which implies lower future oil production.

A Reuters poll on Monday forecast that U.S. crude inventories as a whole fell by 2.1 million barrels last week.

Via Oil prices seesaw as market torn between the bulls and bears | Reuters

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza