Profit taking hammers oil price after OPEC deal

By Margaret Yang, CMC Markets
The crude oil price tumbled 5% last night, with the OPEC countries’ decision to extend their current production freeze plan by another nine months coming in below the market’s expectation. Profit-taking activities and ‘selling on facts’ sent the WTI price to US $48.50 per barrel, triggering a broad sell-off in the US energy sector last night.
Technically, the immediate support levels for WTI can be found around $47 and $45 respectively. The SuperTrend (10,2) looks close to flipping from an uptrend to a downtrend, but we will need to wait for today’s closing price to confirm this assumption.
China A-shares advanced fiercely in spite of Moody’s downgrade
The Shanghai Composite soared 1.46% yesterday, led by financial and property stocks. A50 futures, which represent the performances of banks, insurance and property blue chips, jumped over 3%, reaching their highest level in over eighteen months. The rally came one day after Moody’s highlighted the credit risk and slowing economic growth, which led to a downgrade of China’s credit rating.
The credit downgrade was a reflection of the country’s large, economy-wide debt and slower growth outlook. Despite this, China’s GDP growth has shown signs of stablisation over the last six months, but the progress of reforms remains slow.
Moody’s has also revised China’s outlook from negative to stable and risks are balanced at the A1 rating level. The erosion in China’s credit profile is expected to be gradual and eventually contained if the reforms deepen.
CSOP FTSE China A50 ETF

Margaret Yang Yan, CFA, is a market analyst for CMC Markets Singapore