Brent crude futures fell 5 cents, or 0.06 percent, to $88.35 a barrel by 0006 GMT, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures slipped 12 cents, or 0.15%, to 82.51 dollars per barrel.
The front-month contract for both benchmarks lost more than 1% on Monday.
Hamas negotiators left Cairo on Monday evening to consult with the group’s leaders after discussions with Qatari and Egyptian mediators on a response to a gradual truce proposal presented by Israel over the weekend.
The delegation was expected to submit its report within two days, two Egyptian security sources said. As Hamas leaders traveled to Cairo, Israeli airstrikes killed dozens of Palestinians on Monday, more than half of them in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, which foreign leaders urged Israel not to invade . Continued attacks by Yemen’s Houthis on maritime traffic south of the main Suez Canal trade route have kept oil prices at a record low and could lead to higher risk premia if players anticipate disruptions in the crude supply. The Houthis targeted two US destroyers and the ship Cyclades in the Red Sea as well as the MSC Orion in the Indian Ocean, the Iran-aligned group’s military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a televised speech on Tuesday.
On the economic front, investors this week are watching the U.S. Federal Reserve’s May 1 policy review, with stubborn inflation pushing back market expectations for any rate cuts, which could support the U.S. dollar and hamper the demand for oil.
Some investors are cautiously assessing the likelihood that the Fed will raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point this year and next, while inflation and the job market remain resilient.
(Reporting by Georgina McCartney; editing by Sonali Paul)
