Oil holds $49.00 handle, focus on OPEC meeting

WTI crude oil prices extended its rebound from Wednesday’s low of $47.73 and are currently holding its neck above $49.00 on hopes that OPEC members might revisit their discussion on production ceiling at Thursday's meeting in Vienna.

On Tuesday, emerging headlines that OPEC might discuss output ceiling set-off the negative sentiment over the API report that showed US crude stockpiles increased 2.35 million barrels during the previous week. 

Market participants might now adopt a cautious stance ahead of the official EIA report on US crude inventory, later during NY session and the outcome of Thursday's bi-annual OPEC meeting. 

Although most analysts are not expecting any formal agreement on curtailing production from today's meeting, any surprising outcome would be enough to trigger large moves in the black gold.

Technical levels to watch

On the immediate upside, $49.60-65 zone remains immediate resistance to watch for, which is followed by the very important $50.00 psychological mark resistance. A sustained move above this strong resistance now seems to boost the commodity further towards Oct. 2015 highs resistance near $51.35-40 region.

Meanwhile on the downside, $48.70 seems to provide immediate support and is followed by support around $48.00 round figure mark. On a sustained weakness below $48.00 round figure mark, the commodity seems to slide immediately towards 2-week lows support near $47.40 before heading towards testing its previous strong resistance, now turned strong support, near $47.00 handle.