WTI Price Analysis: Oil bears have an upper hand but 200-HMA break becomes necessary

• WTI crude oil struggles to defend latest gains around one-week high.
• Two-week-old descending resistance line, bearish MACD signals favor Oil sellers.
• Buyers need validation from $77.00 to retake control.

WTI crude oil retreats to $72.80, easing from a one-week high, as the short-term key resistance line teases the commodity sellers early Tuesday. Apart from the failure to cross an immediate trend line resistance, bearish MACD signals also weigh on the WTI crude oil price.

However, the 200-Hour Moving Average (HMA) surrounding $72.60 appears a tough nut to crack for the Oil sellers to take fresh entries.

Following that, the 50% Fibonacci retracement level of April 24 to May 03 downside, near $71.70 at the latest, could restrict the quote’s further downside.

It’s worth noting that, the $70.00, $69.40 and $67.30 are additional downside filters before directing the WTI bears towards the multi-month low marked the last week around $64.30.

Meanwhile, an upside clearance of the aforementioned resistance line, close to $73.10 by the press time, isn’t an open welcome to the Oil buyers as the previous support line from the last Thursday, near $73.70, acts as an extra check for the bulls.

Even if the energy benchmark remains firmer past $73.70, a horizontal area comprising levels marked since April 24, near $76.80-90, quickly followed by the $77.00 round figure, can challenge the black gold’s further upside.

Overall, Oil price fades the previous day’s recovery but the bears have a long and bumpy road ahead.

WTI: Hourly chart

Trend: Bearish