The price of crude oil fell -$1.77 or -2.5% to settle at $68.93.
The declines today have been driven by economic concerns after a sharp drop in U.S. consumer confidence to an 8-month low of 98.3. That mirrored the Univ. of Michigan consumer sentiment released last week.
Oil also declined alongside stocks and cryptocurrencies, with technical selling pushing the price to new 2025 lows (lowest level since December 24.
Additional pressure came from potential peace talks in the Russia-Ukraine war, which could ease sanctions on Russian oil opening up supply in the process.
Crude oil technicals
Technically, the price fell below the 100 day MA (blue line on the chart above) on Friday and stayed below that MA both yesterday and today. That MA comes in at $71.47 and the high price today stalled $0.21 below that level at $71.26. Staying below it, and the higher 200-day MA (green line on the chart above) at $73.87 keeps the seller in control.
On the downside, the next target area comes near a swing area between $66.53 and $68.45 (see chart above). Move below that level and traders would start to look toward the low prices from 2023 between $63.64 and $64.36.