WTI daily upside halted near $59.00

• Prices for the WTI met resistance near $59.00.
• Hopes of an extension of the OPEC deal remain in place.
• All the attention on OPEC meeting on Thursday.

Prices of the barrel of the American reference for the sweet light crude oil are on the defensive at the beginning of the week, down more than 1% in the $58.20 area, or session lows.

WTI focused on OPEC meeting

After testing the $59.00 handle earlier in the session, prices of WTI faded that spike and retreated to the current area of daily lows in the $58.20/10 band.

In the meantime, crude oil prices are down for the first time after four consecutive sessions with gains, as cautiousness seems to have kicked in among traders ahead of the critical OPEC meeting on November 30.

Speculations of an extension of the current OPEC/non-OPEC output cut deal beyond March 2018 and likely for 8 extra months remain high amongst investors, particularly after Russia showed it could support the idea following comments by officials last week.

In the data space, the usual weekly report on US crude oil supplies by the API and the EIA are due on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, followed by the OPEC meeting on Thursday and Baker Hughes’s oil rig count on Friday.

WTI significant levels

At the moment the barrel of WTI is losing 1.29% at $58.19 facing the next support at $57.75 (low Nov.24) seconded by $56.92 (10-day sma) and finally $56.39 (21-day sma). On the flip side, a surpass of $59.05 (2017 high Nov.24) would aim for $62.58 (2015 high May 6) and then $77.83 (high Nov.21 2014).