WTI hits 1-month highs above $70.00

• WTI break above $70.00 a barrel but losses momentum on US-China trade tensions. 
• Crude gains 3.50% over the last five days. 

WTI (oil futures on NYMEX) head higher on Thursday, rising 1%. During the US session rose above $70.00 a barrel and reached the highest intraday level since July 20 at $70.50. Afterward pulled back and near the end of the session was hovering around $70.20. 

Earlier today, fears of a tightening market ahead of US sanctions on Iran and a decrease in US stockpiles, boosted crude prices. The bullish bias was reinforced with the breakout above $70.00. The positive momentum eased following a report from Bloomberg that mentioned US President Trump told aides to go ahead with plans to impose tariffs on Chinese goods for USD 200B. Equity prices in Wall Street extended losses and the greenback printed fresh highs versus the Australian Dollar. 

WTI Technical outlook 

According to Valeria Bednarik, Chief Analyst at FXStreet, the advance seems poised to continue as in the daily chart, technical indicators maintain their firm upward slopes at fresh 1-month high and as the price keeps advancing beyond all of its moving averages.

“In the shorter term, and according to the 4 hours chart, the commodity is also biased higher, now developing far above a bullish 20 SMA, which keeps running above the larger ones, as technical indicators resume their advances despite being in overbought territory”, added Bednarik.