WTI: Bulls regain control on likely Russia-Saudi meeting ahead of EIA data

• WTI recovers ground from surprise Fed rate cut-led broad market sell-off.
• OPEC+ cuts expectations keep the prices underpinned.
• Focus on EIA data, Russia-Saudi meeting and coronavirus updates.

Having faced rejection above the 48 mark, WTI (oil futures on NYMEX) fell sharply to test the 47 handle before recovering ground to revert to the 48 level, where it now wavers.

The recovery in the broad market sentiment helped the black gold stage a comeback from near 46.50 region. However, the bulls lacked follow-through amid bearish fundamentals and looming coronavirus crisis.

Oil prices reversed a part of Monday’s rebound after the US Federal Reserve (Fed) cut the interest rates by 50bps in an emergency move to battle the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak that likely sent a panic signal to the global markets, with risk smashed alongside the US Treasury yields.

So far this Wednesday, the prices defend bids amid a recovery in the S&P 500 futures and European equities while expectations of a potential OPEC+ supply cuts continue to lend support to the bulls.  Reuters reported a day before that the OPEC+ is recommending output cuts by 600k barrel per day (bpd) in Q2 through the year-end, in a move to stabilize the oil markets.

The latest uptick in oil can be mainly attributed to the latest headlines, citing that Russia and Saudi oil ministers are said to hold a bilateral meeting ahead of OPEC JMMC meeting on March 5 and 6.

Looking ahead, the focus now remains on the US weekly crude stocks data due to be published by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) later at 1530 GMT and the OPEC headlines for fresh direction in the prices, as markets shrugged off a bearish crude inventory report from the American Petroleum Institute (API) released late Tuesday.

WTI technical levels to watch