WTI sinks to lows near $53.00

Crude oil prices are retreating from recent tops in the $54.30 area on Monday, sending the barrel of West Texas Intermediate to fresh lows near the $53.00 mark.

WTI focus on data, Fedspeak

Prices for the WTI are surrendering part of recent gains and are testing the so far interim support in the $53.00 neighbourhood, where sits the 20-day sma.

The continuation of the better tone in the buck following Friday’s Non-farm Payrolls is also sustaining today’s downside, along with increasing US drilling activity as reported by Baker Hughes at the end of last week.

In the meantime, traders remain vigilant on the developments from the recent deal between OPEC and non-OPEC countries to limit the oil output. In this regard, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have informed last week that they will stick to their commitment to scale back their production, somewhat limiting the downside in prices.

In the same direction, the persistent low temperatures in Europe continue to give extra support to crude oil prices.

Ahead in the NA session, the Fed’s Labor Market Conditions Index is due followed by speeches by Atlanta Fed Dennis Lockhart (centrist, non voter) and Chicago Fed Charles Evans (voter, dovish).

Sustaining prices, crude oil speculative net longs have stayed around multi-month tops during the week ended on January 3 and according to the latest CFTC repot.

WTI levels to consider

At the moment the barrel of WTI is losing 1.56% at $53.15 and a breakdown of $52.98 (20-day sma) would open the door to $52.11 (low Jan.3) and then $51.66 (high Dec.9). On the other hand, the next resistance lines up at $54.51 (high Dec.12) followed by $55.24 (2017 high Jan.3) and finally 62.58 (high May 6 2015).