With Crude futures settling up two dollars at $67.45 today, the price rise came despite bearish developments such as a surprise build in U.S. crude inventories and increased supply from OPEC+.

• The EIA weekly inventory data showed an unexpected build of 3.8-million-barrel, much higher than the -1.8-million-barrel draw expected.
• OPEC+ added another 411,000 barrels per day of supply on July 1 and is expected to approve a similar increase for August during its July 6 meeting.

In addition, the ADP employment change showed a surprise drop in employment well below the expected 100K rise.

However, offsetting the negative was a lower dollar which provided. A technical break also encouraged buying.

Looking at the hourly chart below, the price broke above the topside range in play since April 24 and also above the 50% midpoint of the move up from the April 9 low at $66.33 (see red box on the chart below). The price also extended above the 200-hour moving average at $67.06 (green line on the chart above).

Those breaks gave the buyers the go ahead to push to the upside from a technical perspective.

Going forward, it would take a move back below those two levels to disappoint the buyers and put sellers back in control from a technical perspective. On the top side of the next key target comes here the $69 level.