Crude oil prices holding at the lower end of their weekly ranges

Crude oil prices are little changed this Thursday, as financial assets seem to be finding some balance following early week's sharp moves. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures trade mostly flat for the day around $55.10 a barrel, while Brent hovers a few cents above $61.00 a barrel, still at the lower end of these last two weeks ' range.

The black gold suffered a major setback after posting multi-month highs early November, affected by political jitters in Saudi Arabia, and increasing US production which partially offsets OPEC´s efforts to bring the market back to balance. News this week weren't precisely encouraging, as the US EIA report showed a large build in US crude stockpiles, well above the 2.2M barrels decline expected.

Levels to watch

WTI bottomed for the week at 54.80, making of the level the immediate support, ahead of Friday's Baker Hughes report. The document indicates the number of US active rigs drilling oil in the country and usually has strong effects on oil prices. Below that level, the next support comes at 53.70, where the commodity has several intraday lows from late October, followed by a static support at 52.50. To the upside, the pair has an immediate resistance at 55.60, today's high and November 6th low, followed by 57.20, en route to 57.90 the high set this month.