WTI pares gains, back to test $ 68 ahead of API data

• Resurgent USD demand negates the concerns over Libya’s exports.
• Investors turn cautious ahead of the API crude stockpiles data.

WTI (oil futures on NYMEX) faded the renewed uptick and fell back towards the familiar range just ahead of the $ 68 support area, as the US dollar regained ground across the board amid escalating trade war concerns and month-end/ quarter-end flows in play.

More so, the OPEC decision to hike the output by one million barrels per day (bpd) also continue to weigh on investors’ sentiment, in turn, keeping the rallies capped. Markets also digest the latest comments from the Iranian and Saudi Arabian Energy Ministers, as attention now turns towards the US supply-side scenario, with the weekly US API crude inventories due on the cards later on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the prices continue to derive some support from the looming concerns over the Libyan exports, following the reports that the Eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar's forces have given control of oil ports to a separate National Oil Corporation (NOC) based in the country's east.

Also, the Canadian supply outage also keeps the downside cushioned in the black gold. . The US rigs count declined by cut one oil rig, the first reduction in 12 weeks, lowering the total rig count to 862, the oilfields services company Baker Hughes said on Friday.

Goldman Sachs warned a day before that an “outage at Syncrude Canada’s oil sands facility could leave North America short of 360,000 bpd of supply for all of July”.

WTI Technical Levels:

Resistances: $ 68.56 (daily top), $ 69.38 (4-week highs), $ 70 (round number).

Supports: $ 67.83 (5-DMA), $ 66.80/82 (classic S2/ 10-DMA), $ 66.50 (psychological levels).