Crude oil settles at $77.59

Crude oil futures are settling at $77.59. That is up $0.63 or 0.82%. The rise today snaps a four-day losing streak. Inventory data showed a surprise drawdown in crude, gasoline, and distilates. That helped to support the gains.

Technically. however, the price remains below its 200-day moving average at $78.73 (green line in the chart above). The price needs to get above that level, to increase the bullish bias.

The limited gain despite the the drawdowns in the inventory suggests that the market is still concerned about slowdown in global growth including China and more recently potentially in the US.

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at www.forexlive.com.