Crude oil settles at $76.66

<p>The price of crude oil is settling at $76.66, down -$1.60 or -2.04%.</p><p>The high for the day reached $78.77. The low reached $76.45. </p><p>Looking at the hourly chart below, the run higher yesterday moved higher and above the 200-hour MA and a downward sloping trend line. That break, however, was short-lived, and the subsequent rally found willing sellers against the topside trend line (see red numbered circle 3) before moving lower today. That gave sellers the go-ahead to push to the downside.</p><p>That move down has taken the price below the 100-hour MA at $77.40- tilting the short-term bias back to the downside. </p><p>Going forward, the 100-hour MA and the 200 hour MA and trend line will remain as resistance. Staying below is more bearish. </p><p>The U.S. saw a build in crude stocks, although strong demand for refined products offset this to some extent. </p><ul><li>Crude oil stocks rose 3.600M vs an estimate of a build of 1.793M. </li><li>Gasoline stocks saw a draw of -1.500M vs 0.622M build estimate. </li><li>Distilates saw a draw of -1.400M vs a draw of -1.242M estimate</li></ul>

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