Oil is Listed as Day to Day, But, Then Again, Aren't We All?

Due to the holiday-shortened week crude oil inventory will be released tomorrow morning in lieu of the usual Wednesday release. On the topic of crude, energy stocks housed in the XLE ETF have experienced a good deal of whipsaw in recent months, since late-April really. 

During those times of frustrating trend-less action, it is important to not become frustrated by the picayune moves and instead zoom out for the better perspective. 

On the XLE weekly chart, below, note the potential, still, for a massive inverse head and shoulders bottom to terminate what had been an angry, unforgiving bear market for quite some time. XOM has acted like a safe haven leader. And other energy names have made improvements this year. 

However, more work needs to be done to prove a good low is in. 

Specifically, a weekly close over $70 still makes sense as a dividing line between potential and actual bottom. So while the day-to-day whipsaw may seem to have no rhyme or reason, it may be part and parcel of a larger bottoming process, which is always a tedious endeavor in any market, let alone the notoriously volatile oil one.