WTI breaks out

10月11日

Oil prices have been edging higher from their earlier lows. Understandably, traders do not want to be caught holding short bets on oil heading into the long weekend. The potential for Israel to strike Iran could see oil prices gap higher at the Asian open next week. There’s also the potential that China’s finance minister will announce substantive fiscal support for the ailing economy. This could ease demand concerns.

Meanwhile, oil traders will also look forward to the release of the monthly OPEC and IEA reports on Monday and Tuesday. Bearish oil speculators will be watching for further signs of weakness in oil demand, while the bulls will probably jump on anything constructive for oil prices. Let’s see what these groups will post, but with the focus being mainly on the Middle East situation, I don’t expect to see prices move very much on the back of these monthly oil reports.

WTI has just broken its bearish trend line observed on 1 hour time frame. The new short-term support now is this trend line at around $75.30. From here, WTI could rise to take out liquidity resting above recent highs of $78.30, and possibly even reach $80.00. Let's see if it will be able to hold the breakout now.

By Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst for FOREX.com