WTI drops back towards $72.00 amid mixed sentiment, firmer US Dollar ahead of API inventories

• WTI prints the first daily loss in three, eyes the biggest monthly loss in 2023.
• Risk profile turns dicey even as US policymakers agree on measures to avoid default.
• OPEC’s Al Ghais teases Iranian Oil’s return, prods energy bulls.
• US-China headlines, firmer US Dollar and hawkish Fed bets weigh on WTI price.

WTI crude oil bears return to the table, after a two-day absence, as the market’s rush towards the US Dollar joins fears of economic transition and higher energy supplies. With this, the black gold registers near 0.80% intraday losses around $72.40 ahead of Tuesday’s European session.

Late on Monday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Secretary-General Haitham Al Ghais praises Iran’s role in the global energy market as the Gulf nation is about to return to the oil supply frontier as the US-led sanctions expire soon. Even so, OPEC’s Al Ghais said, “We don’t target a certain price level.”

Apart from that, the US-China woes also weigh on the Oil price as the same downs the odds of free trade among the world’s top two economies, as well as one of the world’s biggest Oil consumers.

On the different, the US Dollar Index (DXY) rises to a fresh high in 10 weeks as it is printing the 104.50 mark at the latest. In doing so, the greenback not only cheers the market’s rush towards risk safety amid Sino-America tussles and uncertainty surrounding the US debt ceiling deal’s passage through Congress but also takes clues from the hawkish Fed bets, especially after the last week’s upbeat data.

Amid these plays, the S&P500 Futures print mild gains and the yields retreat after a long weekend in major markets.

Moving on, the weekly prints of the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) Crude Oil Stock data, prior -6.79M, as well as the US Conference Boards’ (CB) Consumer Confidence prints for May, will direct intraday moves of the WTI crude oil.

Technical analysis

Monday’s Doji candlestick keeps WTI crude oil bears hopeful of breaking a fortnight-old ascending support line, around $71.60 by the press time.