Key Points

• Price consolidation
• Open Interest on the downside

Crude oil has been trading in a tight consolidation region between $44.35 and $46.75 since mid-November. In the past few days a much narrower range of $45.20 and $46.00 has managed to contain prices as markets awaits new information. The directional bias has remained neutral as prices are currently sitting on an ascending support line. If a bearish break materialise beyond this line, immediate support will be at the $44.35 region which is backed by an ascending support line.

Oil Daily Chart

CME Group’s data for crude oil futures markets indicated that open interest went down for the second session in a row on Tuesday. It is worth noting that the contract volume has declined to weekly lows below 750 000. However, this decline in volumes is in line with the monthly trading cycle of oil therefore it is not a cause for concern in the market.

Daily Pivot Points

Trends

Moving Average	Simple	Exponential
60	45.37 BUY	45.04 BUY
100	44.19 BUY	44.19 BUY
200	41.52 BUY	42.72 BUY

Pivot Points (Daily)

Name	S3	S2	S1	Pivot	R1	R2	R3
US-Oil	44.40	44.77	45.19	45.56	45.98	46.35	46.77
Brent-Oil	47.37	47.73	48.28	48.64	49.19	49.55	50.10
Natural Gas	2.240	2.304	2.352	2.416	2.464	2.528	2.576

Pivot Points (Weekly)

Name	S3	S2	S1	Pivot	R1	R2	R3
US-Oil	41.80	42.86	44.56	45.62	47.32	48.38	50.08
Brent-Oil	44.30	45.56	47.40	48.66	50.50	51.76	53.60
Natural Gas	1.826	2.144	2.360	2.678	2.894	3.212	3.428