Oil turns lower ahead of US crude inventories data

Oil prices turned lower as the US market opened on Tuesday, to deepen losses for second straight day on profit-taking activity, in addition to renewed trade fears as the US date for imposing tariffs on Chinese imports is approaching, while these losses are ebbed by prospects for the US crude inventories to fall for the second straight week.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell to $58.54, after opening at $58.87, with a session-high of $59.38, and Brent fell to $63.80 a barrel, after opening at $64.05, with a high of $64.68.

WTI closed lower by 0.4% on Monday, iits first loss in the last 6 days, on profit taking 3-month high of $59.81 hit on Friday, and Brent crude futures fell by around 0.4%, after posted the highest since Sept.23 of $64.86 on Friday.

During the last week, oil prices gained 6.5%, their fourth straight weekly gain and the largest weekly since mid-September, after the new OPEC agreement and a surprise drop in US crude inventories.

Market's fears over the US-China trade war were renewed as the US date for imposing tariffs on Chinese imports worth $156 billion is approaching without reaching any tangible results in the trade talks to complete the phase one of the trade deal.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) will release preliminary data on the US crude inventories later today, with forecasts to decline for the second straight week, while the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) will reveal the official data tomorrow.