Crude Oil Technical Analysis – Middle East tensions drive the price action

Fundamental
Overview

Crude oil rallied strongly
on Tuesday following the first news of an imminent missile
attack from Iran against Israel. We had also the US
ISM Manufacturing PMI release with the new orders index ticking higher in a
potentially first sign of an improvement in demand.

Yesterday, crude oil
extended the gains as we got the news that Israel could target Iran’s oil infrastructure
in a potential retaliation. That also triggered a breakout of a key resistance
which increased the bullish momentum.

In the big picture, central
bank easing generally leads the manufacturing cycle, so we can expect global
growth to pick up, especially after the Fed’s 50 bps cut and the Chinese
officials surprising with strong easing measures.

All these reasons should be
bullish for the market and support prices in the next months barring a
recession. As a reminder, the positioning in crude oil is at record lows and
the sentiment is still very bearish. These factors can generally offer great
contrarian opportunities when we get to an inflection point in the
fundamentals.

Crude Oil
Technical Analysis – Daily Timeframe

On the daily chart, we can
see that crude oil finally broke above the key 71.67 resistance and extended the rally into the major
trendline
where we can also find the 61.8% Fibonacci
retracement level for confluence.

This is where we can expect
the sellers to step in with a defined risk above the trendline to position for
a drop back into the 71.67 level, while the buyers will want to see the price
breaking higher to increase the bullish bets into the 80.00 handle.

Crude Oil Technical
Analysis – 4 hour Timeframe

On the 4 hour chart, we can
see that we have now a minor upward trendline defining the current bullish
momentum. If the price were to pull back, we can expect the buyers to lean on
the trendline to position for new highs, while the sellers will look for a
break lower to increase the bearish bets into the 65.00 handle.

Crude Oil Technical
Analysis – 1 hour Timeframe

On the 1 hour chart, we can
see more clearly the recent price action with the major spikes higher triggered
by the Israel and Iran tensions. There’s not much else we can add here as the buyers
will look for a bounce around the trendline or a break above the 75 handle,
while the sellers will want to see a stronger rejection and a break below the
minor upward trendline. The red lines define the average daily range for today.

Upcoming
Catalysts

Today we conclude the week with the US NFP report where the consensus sees
140K jobs added and the unemployment rate to remain unchanged at 4.2%.

This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at www.forexlive.com.