Brent oil – Poised for weekly gain unless Baker Hughes disappoints

Brent oil looks set to end the two-week losing streak unless the Baker Hughes report in the US shows a sharp rise in oil rig count.

Supported by production freeze talk and falling US inventories

Prices opened at $46.60 on Monday and extended gains to a high of $50.10 levels largely on the back of expectations that Russia and Saudi would freeze their output while allowing an exemption to Iran.

Prices also found support from the API data which showed biggest draw in inventories since late 90s.

However, experts are of the opinion that Saudi and Russia freezing their output at record high levels would not help solve the problem of excess supply.

The focus today is on the Baker Hughes data, which if shows a big rise in the rig count could single handedly force oil benchmarks to surrender their weekly gains.

Brent Technical Levels

A break above immediate hurdle of $50.00 (zero figure) could yield $52.20 (weekly 100-MA). On the other hand, a breakdown of support at 49.00 (zero figure) would expose $46.32 (weekly low).