WTI Price Analysis: Rally stalls at $80.00 on easing supply disruption woes

• WTI price eases off seven-week highs on easing concerns over supply disruption.
• Russian troops restored order in Kazakhstan, Libya’s NOC says production resumes.
• WTI looks to take out stiff resistance near $80.50-$81.00 amid favorable technicals.

WTI (NYMEX futures) has pulled back from fresh seven-week highs of $79.97 reached earlier this Friday, currently adding 0.63% on the day to trade around $79.50.

The pause in the oil price rally comes on the heels of easing tensions surrounding supply disruptions. Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev declared that order had largely been restored in the country, thanks to the deployment of the Russian troops, following efforts to suppress mass protests that erupted over fuel price increases and have left dozens of people dead. 

Meanwhile, Libya’s state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) said on Friday that the maintenance work for the main crude transmission line at Al-Waha Oil Company was completed, bringing back oil output to around one million barrels per day (bpd).

Technically, WTI seems to have entered an upside consolidative mode, as the bulls gather pace to take out the horizontal trendline resistance around $80.50.

Ahead of that, buyers need to find a foothold above the $80 mark. The flattening of the 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) also justifies the range play currently seen in the US oil.

The leading indicator, however, stays above the midline, suggesting that the uptrend remains well in place.

WTI: Daily chart

Despite the bullish momentum, the uptrend could likely face headwinds from an impending bear cross, as the 100-Daily Moving Average (DMA) is set to cross the 50-DMA for the upside.

Any retracement will seek a retest of the $78.00 levels, below which Thursday’s low of $76.41 could be threatened.

The next threshold at the $75.00 level will come to the rescue of WTI bulls.

WTI: Additional levels to watch