Crude in contango

Nymex WTI Light Crude is testing resistance at $54/barrel, while Brent Crude is at $62/barrel. WTI above $54/barrel would signal a bear market rally, but is likely to leave the primary trend unaltered. Breach of support at $45/barrel would signal another decline.

Nymex WTI Light Crude and Brent Crude

The crude oil market is in contango, with spot prices lower than future prices, encouraging traders to store oil until prices rise. But Leslie Shaffer reports that oil storage is nearing full capacity:

“We’re going to see pretty fast inventory builds over the next few weeks,” Francisco Blanch, head of commodity research at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, told CNBC Wednesday, noting that global supply is running around 1.4 million barrels a day above demand.

“If you run out of space, prices tend to react a lot more violently to adjust that supply and demand imbalance and that’s what we expect over the next few weeks,” he said, forecasting both WTI and Brent will fall toward $30 a barrel.

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