Brent Crude – Oil volatile ahead of next week’s OPEC+ meeting

• OPEC+ moves meeting from 26th to 30th November
• Oil pares losses after initial plunge
• Brent remains near 4-month lows

Oil has remained quite volatile today after briefly plunging on Wednesday following reports that OPEC+ has decided to push back its meeting from 16th to 20th November.

The initial market reaction appeared to suggest traders view this as a lack of unity behind supply cuts going into the new year but it wasn’t long until oil reversed those moves.

While there has been more speculation over the day, we may have to wait until the virtual meeting on the 30th to learn just how unified the group remains and whether Saudi Arabia and Russia will need to do any additional heavy lifting in order to keep prices high.

Settling near $80 ahead of OPEC+ meeting

While oil prices have been very volatile recently, Brent appears to be fluctuating around $80, a level that could make the decision more difficult.

BCOUSD Daily

Source – OANDA on Trading View

This is thought to be the breakeven price for Saudi Arabia, the defacto leader of OPEC and the country that has cut output by an additional one million barrels per day.

Brent may be forming an inverse head and shoulders around this level, with the neckline falling around the 200/233-day simple moving average band. A break above here could be a bullish signal but may depend on the group extending current cuts or even deepening them.

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