NEW YORK, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices declined on Tuesday, giving up some of the gains they had scored in the prior session.
The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for July delivery lost 60 cents to settle at 73.06 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for August delivery decreased 9 cents to close at 74.81 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
On Monday, oil prices reaped pronounced gains, with the U.S. crude benchmark and Brent up 2.8 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively.
The positive investor sentiment and the good physical demand as transport activity recovers around the world have supported the oil rally recently, Eugen Weinberg, energy analyst at Commerzbank Research, said in a note on Tuesday.
Traders awaited official U.S. fuel inventory data as the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is set to release its weekly petroleum status report on Wednesday. Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts expect the EIA publications to report a drop of 6.3 million barrels in U.S. crude inventories for the week ending June 18. Enditem