WTI weaker, dips below $45.00

Crude oil prices area extending their rout today, dragging the barrel of West Texas Intermediate to fresh lows in sub-$45.00 levels.

WTI focus on Fedspeak

Prices for the WTI are coming down from last week’s tops near the $48.00 mark per barrel following a pick up in the demand for the greenback on increasing speculations on a potential rate hike by the Fed in the next months.

The barrel of WTI reached the vicinity of the $48.00 handle on Thursday in response to significant draws during last week, according to reports by the API and the EIA. In fact, API’s reported a 12 million barrels draw, the largest since 1999.

Ahead in the session, all the attention will be on the speech by FOMC’s L.Brainard on ‘Economic Outlook’.

WTI levels to consider

At the moment the barrel of WTI is losing 1.50% at $45.19 and a breach of $43.00 (low Sep.1) would aim for $41.10 (low Aug.11) and finally $39.19 (low Aug.3). On the other hand, the initial up move aligns at $46.14 (20-day sma) followed by $47.75 (high Sep.8) and then $50.54 (high Jun.22).