Yesterday (March 23), WTI crude oil prices falsely broke through the psychological barrier of $100 before plunging to the $85 range. The core driver of this rapid decline was the related remarks made by the US president.



Trump stated:

The United States has postponed its planned strikes against Iran's energy infrastructure by five days.

The two sides are engaged in fruitful negotiations.

Iran subsequently denied the claim, stating that no negotiations had been held to end the conflict. Furthermore, Israel continued its attacks on Iran, while Tehran launched a new round of attacks on US assets in the Middle East.

Against this backdrop, the US president's remarks appear to be more of a verbal intervention aimed at lowering oil prices—a strategy that has proven effective, as evidenced by the WTI crude oil price chart. Today, WTI crude oil prices have fallen below last week's low.

Technical Analysis


(WTI crude oil 1-hour chart source: EasyForex)

When analyzing WTI oil price trends on March 16, we pointed out:

Strong selling pressure exists near the psychological level of $100;

A support zone has formed after the local downward channel was broken.

This support area significantly mitigated yesterday's oil price decline. Meanwhile, recent price movements have established a wide upward channel, with its lower boundary forming a key support level.

Short selling perspective

The $91.50 level, which served as support last week, has now become a resistance level.

If the bulls attempt to rebound from the lower channel line, $95 will be a key test of its strength—this is the price level at which the bears previously pushed the price below the middle channel line.

In the short term, oil prices are likely to fluctuate between the lower channel line and $91.50, and will need stronger news catalysts, especially developments in the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, to break this pattern.

At 19:00 Beijing time, WTI crude oil was trading at $90.37 per barrel, up 2.54%.