• Crude oil prices adds to Friday’s bounce past $73.00.
• Mitigated recession concerns helps the commodity’s upside.
• Focus now shifts to the release of inflation figures on May 10.

Prices of the barrel of the WTI extends the ongoing recovery north of the $73.00 mark on Monday, or 4-day highs.

WTI stronger post-NFP

The buying interest in the commodity gathers extra impulse and underpins the recovery sparked in the second half of last week in response to now dwindling bets of a potential slowdown in the economy.

Indeed, this view now appears reinforced by better-than-expected US Payrolls for the month of April (+230K), showing the persistent resilience of the labour market despite some signs of cooling in past weeks.

The rebound in prices of the WTI also follows technical conditions after the WTI flirted with the oversold territory a couple of days ago.

Later in the week, the focus of attention will be on the release of US inflation figures tracked by the CPI (May 10), as well as weekly reports on crude oil inventories by the API (Tuesday) and the EIA (Wednesday).

WTI significant levels

At the moment the barrel of WTI is up 2.22% at $72.86 and faces the next resistance at $76.92 (high April 28) followed by $79.14 (weekly high April 24) and finally $81.16 (200-day SMA). On the other hand, the breach of $63.97 (monthly low May 3) would open the door to $64.41 (2023 low March 20) and then $61.76 (monthly low August 23 2021).