WTI juggles around $80.50 as investors await Fed Powell’s testimony for fresh impetus

• WTI is demonstrating a sideways auction ahead of Fed Powell’s testimony for further action.
• China’s lower growth forecast is not spoiling oil bulls’ party.
• Moscow is supplying ore cargoes to the UAE at discounted prices due to international sanctions.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI), futures on NYMEX, is displaying back-and-forth action in the early Asian session. The oil price is oscillating around $80.50 as investors have turned sidelines ahead of Federal Reserve (Fed) chair Jerome Powell’s testimony before Congress. Investors are restricting themselves from making significant positions in the black gold as the guidance on interest rates from Fed Powell will provide cues about the oil demand ahead.

The street is expecting Fed Powell will refrain from sounding hawkish as January’s data was a one-time massive show and the United States economy is still struggling with higher rates from the Fed. However, the hawkish interest rate guidance is still in the picture as the current level of the price index is falling from the desired one.

On Tuesday, the oil inventory data from the US American Petroleum Institute (API) will be keenly watched. It is worth noting that the oil stockpiles data is displaying a huge build-up consecutively for the past three weeks.

Upside bias for the oil price would remain intact as the Vice Chair of China’s National Development and Reform Commission of the People's Republic of China (NDRC) said in a statement on Monday, the economy steadily improving. He further added, “We are confident and capable of reaching this year's CPI target.”

However, the lower growth target by the Chinese administration, this week, failed to uplift the sentiment of market participants. The economy has set a growth target of 5% while the street was expecting a 5.5% growth target.

On the supply front, Reuters reported “The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been taking more cargoes of Russian crude oil, according to ship tracking data and trading sources, in another example of how Western sanctions on Russia have adjusted traditional energy trade flows. Under a special military operation, Moscow is delivering crude and other related products at discounted prices.