WTI flirting with highs above $46.00 on OPEC headlines

Crude oil prices are reverting yesterday’s drop, now pushing the barrel of West Texas Intermediate to daily highs above the $46.00 mark.

WTI boosted by OPEC deal

Prices for the barrel of the American light sweet crude oil have climbed to session highs after news showed that the OPEC is near consensus on a 6 month output deal, according to Algeria’s energy minister Boutarfa.

The news adds to yesterday’s upbeat comments by Russian officials signalling that a deal to limit the crude output appears closer ahead of the informal talks in Doha on Friday and the OPEC meeting on November 30.

WTI has thus managed to almost ignore the recent build in US crude inventories during last week, according to weekly reports by the API (Tuesday) and EIA (Wednesday).

Additionally, the renewed offered bias around the greenback continues to sustain the better tone in crude oil prices ahead of the key US docket, where  inflation figures tracked by the CPI are due followed by Housing Starts, Building Permits, the Philly Fed index and Initial Claims.

Furthermore, New York Fed W.Dudley (permanent voter, neutral), L.Brainard (permanent voter, dovish) and Chicago Fed C.Evans (2017 voter, dovish) are all due to speak later ahead of the testimony by Chair J.Yellen on the ‘Economic Outlook’ before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress.

WTI levels to consider

At the moment the barrel of WTI is up 1.12% at $46.08 and a breakout of $46.41 (high Nov.16) would open the door to $47.00 (55-day sma) and finally $48.75 (high Aug.19). On the other hand, the immediate support aligns at $42.20 (low Nov.14) ahead of $41.10 (low Aug.11) and then $37.61 (low Apr.18).

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