Oil prices decline moderately on last trading day of January

Global oil prices declined moderately on January 31 morning, reported from the auction data.

Technical indicators are driving the market’s direction amid a lack of clarity on crude demand, experts say.

The price of April futures for Brent crude fell by 0.39% to $84.17 per barrel, March futures for WTI decreased by 0.44% to $77.56.

While China’s reopening spurred a rally in crude in recent weeks, the market has struggled to hold those levels as prices test their 50-day and 100-day moving averages. That’s prompting commodity trading advisors to sell, dealers said. At the same time, oil traders bullish on Chinese demand are still waiting for the rebound in consumption to ripple from industrial metals to crude, according to Bloomberg.

China is one of the biggest consumers and importers of oil, so the easing of quarantine restrictions in the country supported the forecasts for the country's economy and the outlook for oil demand.

Investors are also looking forward to the publication of weekly data on oil inventories in the US on February 1. Analysts believe that in the week to January 27, commercial oil inventories in the country fell by 1 million barrels after rising by 0.5 million a week earlier.

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