WTI stays near daily lows, around $52.40

After a brief test of the $52.30 area, the barrel of West Texas Intermediate has managed to attract some attention and advance to the $52.40 zone although still well into the red territory.

WTI lower on US drill data

Crude oil prices have returned to the negative territory today despite the generalized offered bias around the US Dollar.

In fact, prices for the WTI deflated to the low-$52.00s after the weekly report by Baker Hughes showed a pick up in the US drilling activity during last week, with US oil rig count increasing by 29 to 551 (the highest level in 14 months).

Rising oil rig count in the US could spark prospects of increasing output, thus weighing on sentiment and dragging prices lower.

On the positioning front, crude oil speculative longs have climbed to record levels once again

WTI levels to consider

At the moment the barrel of WTI is losing 1.52% at $52.41 and a break below $51.39 (low Jan.20) would open the door to $50.91 (low Jan.18) and finally $50.71 (2017 low Jan.10). On the other hand, the next resistance is located at $53.47 (high Jan.23) followed by $53.52 (high Jan.17) and finally $54.32 (high Jan.6).