Brent oil is now back in the red on a year-to-date basis amid waning optimism surrounding China’s economic reopening while rising US inventories further dented sentiment.

Brent’s ascent that commenced in December had been halted at its 100-day simple moving average (SMA), with prices now faltering below another widely-followed technical indicator, the 50-day SMA.

Such price action now leaves the global oil benchmark on the cusp of recording back-to-back weekly drops, at the time of writing.

The OPEC+ decision to refrain from any supply intervention this week, leaving its output settings intact, only underscores the heightened uncertainties engulfing oil markets at present.

In order for Brent bulls to be reinvigorated, China’s economic reopening must produce firmer results while major central banks continue easing away from their hawkish policy stance to avoid triggering a deeper-than-feared global recession.

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