WTI crude oil futures to settle at $74.30

The price of WTI WTI WTI is the short-hand for West Texas Intermediate crude oil. WTI is a type of petroleum crude oil that serves as a benchmark in oil pricing. It is a light, sweet crude oil that is extracted from West Texas area in the United States, including the Permian Basin. WTI crude oil is considered to be a high-quality oil due to its low sulfur content and high yields of gasoline and diesel fuel when refined. It is used as a benchmark for pricing other types of crude oil, and the price of WTI crude o WTI is the short-hand for West Texas Intermediate crude oil. WTI is a type of petroleum crude oil that serves as a benchmark in oil pricing. It is a light, sweet crude oil that is extracted from West Texas area in the United States, including the Permian Basin. WTI crude oil is considered to be a high-quality oil due to its low sulfur content and high yields of gasoline and diesel fuel when refined. It is used as a benchmark for pricing other types of crude oil, and the price of WTI crude o Read this Term crude futures Futures Futures or a futures contract represents a legal agreement to buy or sell a security or asset at a predetermined price at a specified time in the future. Of note, the parties are not known to each other.These transactions usually involve commodities or other securities involving the buying and selling for a forward or predetermined price.Futures also adhere to a delivery date, which specifies the date of delivery and payment. Relative to other forms of investing futures are much more complex, as Futures or a futures contract represents a legal agreement to buy or sell a security or asset at a predetermined price at a specified time in the future. Of note, the parties are not known to each other.These transactions usually involve commodities or other securities involving the buying and selling for a forward or predetermined price.Futures also adhere to a delivery date, which specifies the date of delivery and payment. Relative to other forms of investing futures are much more complex, as Read this Term are settling at $74.30. That's down $2.77 or -3.59%. The low for the day has reached $74.26, just below the settlement level. The high reached $77.93.

Technically, the gap from the the OPEC+ production cut decision from March 31 between $75.70 and $79 was filled today. The initial low for the day reached earlier today extended to $75.64 - just below the low gap level - before bouncing up to $77.22. The last 3 hours have seen a run to the downside with a price falling -$2.96 or -3.83%.

Looking at the daily chart, the price has also moved back below a broken trend line, and now looks toward the 50% midpoint of the move up from the March 20 low at $64.36 and the April 12 high up at $83.53. That midpoint level comes in at $73.94 and is the next key target on the downside.

NOTE, at the high price reached on April 12, traders tested its 200 day moving average (green line in the chart above). The inability to move above that moving average was a bearish technical clue (turned buyers to sellers), that has gathered downside steam as concerns about banking and global growth intensifies.

The price decline today comes despite a sharp drawdown in the crude oil inventory of -5.054M barrels. That was much higher than the -1.486M drawdown expected, but not as great as the approximate 6 million drawdown from the private inventory data released last night.

US stocks have moved back to the downside contributing to the softer tone:

• Dow Jones is down -236.0 or -0.71%
• S&P is down -18.23 points or -0.44%
• NASDAQ index stays positive at +54.42 points or 0.46%