Crude oil settles at $72.68

<p>Crude oil futures are settling at $72.68. That represents a gain of $0.66 or 0.92%. The high-priced extended to $75.25. The low price reached $72.36. The sharp rise to the upside was spurred on by the US and UK bombing of Houthi rebel in Yemen. </p><p>The price rises did extend above the January 5 high (high for the new year) at $74.15, but reversed lower and ended up using that level as resistance when rebroken to the downside (see chart above). </p><p>The low price did find support buyers near the 100/200 hour MAs centered near $72.30 currently (blue and green lines on the chart below). That level will be a key barometer going forward. Bullish above. Bearish below. </p><p>This week, the US inventory showed that bigger than expected builds on Wednesday. Crude oil inventories showed a build of 1.338 million barrels versus a drawdown of -0.675 million estimate. Gasoline and distillates were also much stronger-than-expected. Gasoline inventories shown at buildup 8.0299 versus 2.489 million estimate. Distilates showed a build of 6.528 million versus estimates of 2.382 million.</p><p>The Geopolitical risk from the Red Sea blockades from Houthi rebels pulled prices the other way. </p><p>For the week, the price is down -1.57%. after rising 3.0% last week and falling -2.6% the week before that. The price action is up and down and up and down. </p>

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at www.forexlive.com.