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, -0.58% 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, -0.69%, which is now the front month, settled at $79.64, down 48 cents, or 0.6%.
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