Hourly moving averages keep crude oil's bullish bias in place

Crude oil's technical picture still shows buyers leaning on the rising hourly moving averages. Those averages help define the bullish tone, buyers' risk and what would let sellers take over.

The hourly moving averages remain the level where buyers keep stepping in.

Prices were last below both the 100-hour and the 200-hour MAs on October 12. Corrective dips since then have found support at one of those MAs and rotated higher again.

Traders read that sequence as a clear signal of where buying interest sits and where sellers must press to regain control.

What could alter the bias?

The 100-hour MA is located around $100.95, and the 200-hour MA is near $99.43, making them the immediate risk levels and the reference points for the bias.

As long as price holds above those zones, buyers remain in charge. A drop below the 100-hour MA would begin to sap upside momentum, and losing the 200-hour MA would hand sellers a stronger technical position after the gains seen through October.

Should sellers push below both moving averages, the $97.00 to $98.48 swing area would become the next downside target. That move would also put the price back under a level that buyers had recently managed to clear.

Where do the upside targets sit?

On the upside, the next objective is the $104.46 to $105.21 swing area, which has hosted multiple highs dating back to May and again in September.

A break above that zone, with follow-through, would open the path to the $106.75 high.

For now, buyers still hold the benefit of the doubt. The moving averages have again and again halted pullbacks; sellers must snap that sequence to alter the technical picture.