A Climactic Bottoming Event in Crude Oil

posted in: crude oil, EIA, Energy, Gold | 0

I have not kept it a secret that I have been looking for a marginal new low in WTI crude to wash out weak handed bulls followed by a violent upside reversal. Today this scenario happened in a most unexpected way following another huge crude inventory build report from the EIA.

Crude oil inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma reached another record in today’s EIA crude inventories report which showed a 9.62 million barrel build:

 

Crude_Total_Oil_Stocks

 

This is also the largest 10-week inventory increase on record:

 

10-week_change_Crude_Inventories

 

Meanwhile, after having fallen six consecutive trading sessions and closing below its lower Bollinger Band on each of the last four sessions, WTI crude rallied 10% on heavy volume :

 

WTI_Crude_3.18.2015

Strong price action on seemingly negative news such as record crude inventories is characteristic of a climactic bottoming event. Only time will tell if this turns out to be the case, however, the scenario of a marginal new low at $42.41 followed by a violent upside reversal meets all the criteria of an intermediate/long term market bottom.

Extreme bearish sentiment and bullish seasonality add weight to the case for a major market bottom in crude. A move back above key support/resistance near $48 would go a long way toward confirming that $42.41 will hold up as the low for some time to come.