WTI: Bears attack $ 46 mark on US demand concerns, EIA eyed

Having witnessed a brief phase of consolidation around $ 46.40 levels, oil futures on NYMEX broke to the downside in the European session, now looking to test five-week troughs of $ 45.77 reached in the US last session.

The risk remains to the downside in the black gold, as the aftereffects of the Harvey storm continues to underscore demand concerns for crude from the US refineries, with nearly a fifth of them shut on flooding and storm damage.  

Meanwhile, focus shifts towards the official US government numbers on the US crude stockpiles due later in the American session, as markets paid little heed to the bullish API crude inventory report released late-Tuesday. The API data showed that the US crude inventories fell by 5.78 million barrels last week.

At the time of writing, WTI drops -0.54% to $46.13, while Brent slumps -0.70% to 51.30.

WTI technical levels 

Higher side: $ 47.42/50 (10-DMA/ psychological levels), $ 47.83 (20-DMA), $ 48.74/89 (Aug 21 & 18 high)

Lower side: $ 45.77 (5-week lows), $ 45.50 (psychological levels), $ 45.15 (classic S2/ Fib S3)