Oil gains for the eighth consecutive day in highest close since November

Markets are generally closed today but oil traded electronically and it picked up from where it left off last week. WTI crude climbed for the eighth day in a row, rising 38-cents to $85.93.

Market watchers have been impressed by drawdowns in visible inventories as well as low inventories of gasoline and diesel. Despite OPEC+ production cuts, US drilling rigs are also falling and that shows that production discipline is finally coming to fruition.

In the short term, Russia teased last week that the OPEC+ production agreement will be extended this week. The parameters remain unclear but unity among the group is certainly strong, and why wouldn’t it be given where pricing stands.

Technically, short term indicators are overbought but this certainly looks like a breakout from the range of the past 10-months.

Last week, this picture from a Forbes commentary was doing the rounds, reminding everyone how lucky we are that the shale revolution happened.