WTI Crude Technical: Bearish tone intact as Trump-Zelenskiy meeting looms

[Redator]

This is a follow-up analysis and update of our prior medium-term outlook report, “WTI Crude Forecast: Risk premium fades, supply pressures mount, bearish trend ahead” published on 8 August 2025.

West Texas Oil CFD (a proxy for WTI crude futures) fell as expected, dropping -3.2% to a three-month low of US$62.19 on Wednesday, 13 August 2025. The decline came ahead of the Trump-Putin meeting on Friday, 18 August, where talks are set to focus on a potential ceasefire to end the three-year Russia-Ukraine war.

West Texas Oil CFD extended its decline in today’s Asia session, slipping -0.7% intraday following last Friday’s Trump–Putin meeting in Alaska to print a current intraday low of US$62.47 at this time of writing.

While President Trump described the talks as “productive,” he provided no details on a potential Russia–Ukraine ceasefire. Markets now turn their focus to today’s meeting between Ukrainian President Zelenskiy, several European leaders, and Trump for further developments.

Let’s examine the latest short-term technical elements in the West Texas Oil CFD and its short-term directional bias (1 to 3 days) from a technical analysis perspective.

Fig. 1: West Texas Oil CFD minor trend as of 18 Aug 2025 (Source: TradingView)

Preferred trend bias (1-3 days)

Bearish bias in West Texas Oil CFD with key short-term pivotal resistance at US$63.85/64.18 and break below US$62.50 reinforces the continuation of a potential bearish impulsive down move sequence to expose the next intermediate supports at US$61.30 (gap of 2 June 2025) and US$60.60/60.10 (Fibonacci extension and lower boundary of minor descending channel from 31 July 2025 high).

Key elements

• Price actions of the West Texas Oil CFD have continued to oscillate within a minor descending channel from the 31 July 2025 swing high of US$71.33, which suggests a minor downtrend phase remains intact.
• The upper boundary of the minor descending channel is acting as a key intermediate resistance at US$54.18.
• The hourly RSI momentum indicator has not flashed out any bullish divergence condition in today’s Asia session and has just staged a retreat right at the 50 level. These observations suggest that short-term bearish momentum remains intact.

Alternative trend bias (1 to 3 days)

A clearance above US$64.18 invalidates the bearish scenario and triggers a possible mean reversion rebound towards the next intermediate resistances at US$64.85, US$65.60, and US$66.30 (also the downward sloping 20-day moving average).

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