Thursday Oil Market Round-up

Oil has been correcting a bit over the last week. Overall this is good news. But before we pop the champaign cork.....



On the weekly chart, we're still in a solid bull market that started at the beginning of 2007. Prices have continually risen, moving through resistance and then consolidating their gains. Notice the SMAs are all moving higher with the shorter above the longer, prices above all the SMAs and all the SMAs moving higher. Simply put, this is what a bull market chart looks like.



On the daily chart, notice the following:

-- Prices have moved through the trend line started in early April, but the trend line from early February is still intact.

-- Prices have moved through support established in early May.

-- All the SMAs are still in a bullish configuration with the shortest above the longest.

-- However, prices are below the 10 and 20 say SMA and the 10 day SMA is beginning to turn lower.

-- Compare the latest price action to the late March, late April periods and you'll see a lot of similarities. In other words, this looks like a consolidation rather than a correction.



On the P&F chart, notice that prices have moved below previous established support levels in the latest correction. That can be a sign that prices are thinking about correcting. However, considering the overall strength of this chart (notice the multiple new higher highs) it's still way too early to tell if we're near a correcting phase or not.

On the gas price front we've still got an incredibly ugly picture:

The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline increased for the tenth straight week. Although its upward momentum slowed, the U.S. average price still climbed another 3.9 cents to hit 397.6 cents per gallon. The average for the East Coast went up by 3.3 cents to 397 cents per gallon; but prices in the Central Atlantic and New England increased by more than 5 cents, climbing past the $4 mark to reach 400.1 and 402.8 cents per gallon, respectively. The average price in the Midwest was essentially unchanged, creeping up by only a tenth of a cent to 395.2 cents per gallon. The average price in the Gulf Coast increased by 1.7 cents to 384.6 cents per gallon and remained the lowest of any region. The price in the Rocky Mountain region went up 3.9 cents to 389 cents per gallon. The price for the West Coast extended its upward surge, jumping another 13.7 cents to strike 416.6 cents per gallon. West Coast prices have risen 28.3 cents over the past two weeks. The average price in California went up even more, shooting to 424.2 cents per gallon, an increase of 14.3 cents from the previous week.