WTI oil price finds support around $70 trading range, firms

US WTI oil prices are trading slightly higher on Tuesday after finding some support around the $70 mark.

Earlier this month, US oil futures hit a ninteen month high at $87.15 on May 3rd, then concerns about Europe’s debt problems and high oil inventories pushed crude oil futures as low as $69.27 at the beginning of this week, a 20.5 percent drop from that May 3rd peak and their weakest since December 14th, 2009.

“While the rise in risk aversion has obviously hurt oil prices our core view remains that although the risks to economic growth may have increased, the self-reinforcing nature of the economic recovery currently underway suggests that prices should recover in the coming weeks.” said JPMorgan’s Global Commodities Research team.

Future WTI oil price direction still remains uncertain because of persistent investor jitters over the euro currency and current swollen US oil inventories. Stockpiles of crude at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery hub for the US contract’s WTI benchmark crude, have risen in the last eight weeks to a record high 37 million barrels, pushing front month US crude oil futures down relative to later futures contracts and the other global crude benchmark, Brent.