WTI crude oil seesaws around $73.00 during Thursday’s sluggish Asian session, following its pullback from a 12-day high. In doing so, the black gold remains with the fortnight-old ascending trend channel while retreating from the channel’s top line and a five-week-long horizontal hurdle of late.

It should be noted that the energy benchmark’s latest pullback takes clues from the impending bear cross on the MACD and a retreat in the RSI (14) line after it touched the overbought territory.

With this, the commodity price is likely to decline further towards the immediate support of 100-SMA, around $71.70 by the press time.

In a case where the quote remains bearish past $71.70, the $70.00 and bottom line of the stated channel, close to $69.45, become crucial to watch as they hold the gate for the Oil bear’s entry.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned five-week-old horizontal resistance near $73.90-74.00 restricts the immediate upside of the WTI crude oil.

Following that, a convergence of the stated channel’s top line and the 200-SMA together highlights $74.60 as a tough nut to crack for Oil buyers.

Should the commodity price rally beyond $74.60, the odds of witnessing a run-up toward $77.50 and then to the $78.00 hurdles can’t be ruled out. Though, multiple hurdles marked since February 13 highlight the $80.80-81.00 as crucial resistance to watch afterward.