Oil edges lower, settles below $49/bbl

Oil prices continued to edge lower on Monday as OPEC left its global oil demand forecasts unchanged but said outages in Canada and Nigeria have helped bring market into balance.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil for July delivery dropped 0.4% to to settle at $48.88 a barrel, having scored a 1-week low of $48.16/bbl earlier in the session.

Speculative interest remains sidelined after profiting for the latest run beyond $50.00 a barrel, ahead of the major events to take place this week and the next, which include three major central banks announcing monetary policy decisions.

WTI technical perspective

“The daily chart shows that an early attempt to advance met selling interest around a horizontal 20 SMA, at 49.25, whilst in the same chart, the technical indicators hold flat within neutral territory,” said Valeria Bednarik, chief analyst at FXStreet. “In the 4 hours chart, the risk remains towards the downside, as the 20 SMA heads sharply lower above the current level, whilst the technical indicators are resuming their declines within bearish territory, after correcting oversold readings.”

Support levels: 48.20 47.50 46.75. Resistance levels: 49.25 50.20 50.90.