The oil market too appears to be waiting for the outcome of this week's two day Fed meeting as yesterday's price action on the daily oil chart was restricted to the current trading range of $69.71 to $72.88. Even a modest rise in the US Dollar failed to tempt daily oil prices higher which ended the oil trading session 14 cents up to close at $70.69 per barrel. In addition oil traders will also watching this week's oil stats for evidence of any pickup in oil demand. From a technical perspective yesterday's candle has given us few clues as to any longer term direction for daily oil prices and the only real issue remains as to whether the $73 per barrel price handle will remain unbroken or whether this will be breached in due course. Certainly from the last few days, and looking back at June's price action on the oil chart, we have now seen no less than six failed attempts in as many weeks to break this level. Last week's hanging man candle certainly reinforced this view, but has so far not been validated and indeed yesterday's price action found support at the 9 day moving average so we could see a further attempt to break the $73 per barrel price point in due course. With the FOMC meeting due to start today all the markets are waiting nervously for both the interest rate decision and any associated statements, particularly with the increased optimism following last week's Non Farm Payroll figures. At the moment crude oil prices appear to be taking their cues from the market's sentiment towards the US Dollar which at present appears positive.
