Crude Oil Slips Below $37 in Thin Trading

WTI Crude has dropped sharply on Monday, as crude futures trade at $36.82 per barrel in Monday’s North American session. There are no US releases on the schedule.

Oil prices have headed lower on Monday, losing about 2.6% to fall back below the $37 level. With thin trading expected throughout the last week of 2015, we could see some choppiness from WTI/USD. Global oil supplies continue to far exceed demand, and oil-producing nations continue to produce at high levels, hoping to hold onto market share even as oil prices continue to drop. The current slide is expected to continue into the New Year, and some analysts are predicting that the commodity will drop below the $30 level.

In the US, there were a host of releases ahead of the Christmas Day holiday. November’s durable goods reports were unimpressive, underscoring weakness in the US manufacturing sector. Core Durable Goods slipped by 0.1%, short of the forecast of a 0.1% gain. Durable Goods came in at 0.0%, but this beat the estimate of -0.6%. Housing numbers also disappointed, as New Home Sales dipped to 490 thousand, well off the estimate of 507 thousand. This reading comes on the heels of Existing Home Sales, which posted a weak reading of 4.76 million, its worst performance since April 2014. There was some good news from consumer indicators, as the UoM Consumer Sentiment improved to 92.6 points, above the forecast of 92.1 points and marking a 4-month high.

WTI/USD Fundamentals

Monday (Dec. 28)

• There are no US releases on Monday

*Key releases are highlighted in bold

*All release times are GMT

WTI/USD for Monday, December 28, 2015

WTI/USD December 28 at 19:00 GMT

WTI/USD  36.82 H: 38.10 L: 36.66

WTI/USD Technical

• Crude has been on a slow but steady downward trend throughout the day.
• 37.75 has switched to a resistance role as crude trades at lower levels
• 35.09 is providing support

Further levels in both directions:

• Below:35.09, 32.22 and 30.00
• Above: 37.75, 39.87, 42.59 and 47.05

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