Crude oil futures settle at $78.90

The price of WTI crude oil futures are settling at $78.90. That’s down -$0.56 or 0.7%.

The high price reached $80.47. The low price extended to $78.52.

For the week, the price moved up for the first four trading days, but is trading down today after reaching the highest level since November 16.

The price is still up for the week as concerns about the oil supply from Kazakhstan (and potential for increased demand after omicron) led to the run to the upside . Kazakhstan supplies 1.6 million barrels a day or close to 2% of the global oil demand.

Technically, the low from Monday’s trade came in at $74.27. That did move below the 100 day moving average briefly (at $74.49), but the price was up, up, up for the rest the week. Last week the price closed at $75.21. At the settled level today, the contract was up $3.69 or 4.9%,