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The
Brent crude price was down 68 cents, or 0.9%, at $76.33 and U.S.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 69 cents, or 0.9%, to
trade at $72.47 by 1022 GMT.
Both contracts had settled more than 2% higher in the previous
trading session.
"The market is cautious today ahead of the inflation data...With
net long positions declining sharply over the last two weeks, a
lot of traders are already out of the market, so volumes are
low." said Suvro Sarkar, lead energy analyst at DBS Bank.
U.S. consumer price index (CPI) figures for April are due on
Wednesday.
The Fed raised rates last week in what may be the last hike of
its tightening cycle. It dropped guidance about the need for
future hikes, with inflationary pressure starting to ease.
U.S. consumers said last month they expected slightly lower
inflation in a year's time, a report from the New York Federal
Reserve showed on Monday.
"Continued moderation of U.S. inflation, and elsewhere, is of
course expected," Clifford Bennett, chief economist at ACY
Securities, said.
"Nevertheless, the Federal Reserve remains highly focussed on
defeating sustained high inflation at any level," he added.
While oil markets fell sharply last week, prices rose on Friday
and Monday as fears of recession eased in the U.S., the world's
biggest oil consumer, and some traders saw crude's three-week
slide on demand worries as overdone.
Also supporting prices, the Canadian province of Alberta
declared a state of emergency over the weekend in response to
wildfires that have displaced nearly 30,000 people and prompted
energy producers to shut in at least 280,000 barrels of oil
equivalent per day, more than 3% of Canada's output.
(Additional reporting by Katya Golubkova in Tokyo and Emily Chow
in Singapore; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
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