Oil prices are down slightly during APAC trading today but Brent has held above $90/bbl. After rising over 2% last week, technical indicators are suggesting that crude is overbought and it has responded today but still in a tight range. WTI is down 0.6% to $87.00/bbl off the intraday low of $86.71. Brent is down only 0.2% to $90.44 after a low of $90.11. The USD index is down 0.4%.

• The relative strength index, stochastic oscillators and Bollinger bands are suggesting that oil is overbought and thus there could be a correction, according to Bloomberg. CFTC net oil positions rose to 299.3k from 240.9k in the latest week.
• Futures timespreads are still signalling that the market is tight. While there was some increased supply in August, Iran’s output is now close to pre-sanction levels and so there is unlikely to be much more from there. There has also been no breakthrough between Turkey and Iraq on the six month dispute over flows from Iraqi Kurdistan to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. This issue continues to hold up around 500kbd. On the demand side, China’s trade data showed strong crude imports.
• The Fed is now in the blackout period ahead of the September 20 meeting and there isn’t any US data. Europe is also quiet. The focus is likely to be on Wednesday’s US CPI.