WTI climbs further beyond mid-$81.00s, two-day tops

• Oil prices gained traction for the second successive session on Monday.
• Prospects for rising energy demand remained supportive of the move.
• US President Biden’s call on OPEC+ to produce more crude capped gains.

WTI crude oil built on Friday's positive move and gained some follow-through traction for the second straight session on Monday. The momentum pushed spot prices to two-day tops, around the $81.70 region during the mid-European session, with bulls now awaiting a sustained strength beyond 200-hour SMA.

The optimistic outlook for global economic growth, along with the passage of a long-delayed $1 trillion US infrastructure bill supported prospects for rising energy demand. Apart from this, a move by Saudi Arabia's state-owned producer Aramco – to raise the price of its benchmark crude for customers in Asia – further pointed to strong demand.

This comes on the back of the recent decision by OPEC+ to keep a cap on crude supplies and further fueled supply concerns, which, in turn, extended support to the black gold. Apart from this, a subdued US dollar price action further acted as a tailwind for dollar-denominated commodities, including oil. The uptick, however, lacked any strong follow-through.

US President Joe Biden called on OPEC+ to produce more crude to dampen rising prices and said his administration has other tools to deal with the higher price of oil. This seemed to be the only factor that might hold bullish traders from placing aggressive bets and keep a lid on any meaningful gains for the commodity, at least for the time being.

Technical levels to watch