Oil futures settled lower for a second session on Tuesday, “having fluctuated quite a lot so far this month, only to trade slightly below where it started,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA. “There’s always been a risk of U.S. rates remaining higher for longer, while China’s recovery has been sluggish for months, as has their response to it,” he said. “We need to see a significant change in the trend of the data to seriously change the outlook for crude and we haven’t seen that.” West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery CLU23 declined by 37 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $80.35 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on the contract’s expiration day. October WTI crude CLV23, which is now the front month, settled at $79.64, down 48 cents, or 0.6%.
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