It’s amazing how a few lines I drew on the Barclays (LON: BARC) price chart earlier this year still hold up. The shares have stayed in a wide trading range throughout 2023, without any significant move in either direction.

On Monday, UK-listed energy stocks saw a strong bounce, thanks to a recovery in oil prices and escalating tensions in the Middle East. This helped push the FTSE 100 index up by 12 points at the start of the week.

However, most bank stocks, including Barclays, saw a drop on Monday. By the time of writing, Barclays shares were down 1.27%. Last week, the shares were once again rejected at the 200-day moving average, which I had anticipated in my previous analysis.

A recent report reveals that Barclays is laying off about 3% of its global investment banking staff, which could affect around 300 people. Four employees in its San Francisco office were let go last week, according to sources.

Meanwhile, Metro Bank’s CEO, Daniel Frumkin, mentioned that Barclays might be interested in purchasing Metro Bank’s £3 billion mortgage portfolio. Barclays hasn’t commented on the matter, but Metro Bank’s stock jumped 11.38% on Monday.

Since my last analysis of LON: BARC, not much has changed. You can add this range to your TradingView chart and see how the price continues to respect these levels in the coming weeks. As I expected, the stock couldn’t break through the middle of the trading range and was rejected again at the 200-day moving average.

This aligns with my bearish outlook for Barclays, with a downside target of 142p. A clear breakout above 160p would invalidate this view, though that seems unlikely given the current market conditions.

I previously forecasted the rejection at the 160p level, and it played out as expected. Feel free to follow me on Twitter for more updates on other UK stocks.