WTI eases-off fresh mid-2015 highs, Iran unrest still underpins

• Posts strongest opening to a year since 2014.
• Weaker DXY & Iran unrest continues to support.
• Eyes on the weekly US crude supplies.

WTI (oil futures on NYMEX) set-off a brand New Year on a bullish note, refreshing mid-2015 highs beyond $ 60.50 levels.

WTI looks to regain $ 61 mark

The barrel of WTI stalled its renewed upside and now consolidates the gains, as the bulls take breather and await fresh impetus for the next push higher. The going rally in the black gold got further fuelled, following large anti-government rallies in Iran, the OPEC’s no. 2 oil producer. Reuters reported that anti-government protesters demonstrated in Iran on Sunday in defiance of a warning by authorities of a crackdown.

Moreover, falling global oil inventories combined with a broadly weaker US dollar also continues to offer support to the commodity. The US commercial crude oil inventories have fallen by almost 20 percent from their historic highs last March, to 431.9 million barrels.

Last week, the EIA report showed that the US crude inventories dropped by 4.6 million barrels in the week to Dec. 22 to 431.9 million barrels. The US oil output dipped to 9.754million bpd versus 9.789million bpd previous.

Focus now remains on the restart of the Forties pipeline and the resumption of production following a pipeline outage in Libya for fresh direction on oil. At the time of writing, WTI rises +0.17% to $ 60.52 while Brent trades little changed near $ 66.94.

WTI Technical Levels

The resistances are aligned at $60.73 (2-1/2 year tops) ahead of $61 (psychological levels) and $61.82 (June 2015 tops). On the downside, supports are located at $60.13 (5-DMA), $59.41 (10-DMA) and $58.34(20-DMA).”