Oil futures settle slightly lower, extending last week’s sharp loss

Oil futures finished modestly lower on Monday, extending the sharp loss seen last week. “The backdrop of sticky high inflation resulting in increasingly more hawkish Fed policy expectations for the foreseeable future and the subsequent rise in recession fears will likely keep a lid on WTI in the low to mid $90s,” analysts at Sevens Report Research wrote in Monday’s newsletter. There is also “solid support between $78 and $82 [a] barrel based on OPEC+s more price-defensive actions this month,” they said. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery CLX22, -0.05% fell 15 cents, or 0.2%, to settle at $85.46 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices have now posted declines in five out of the last six trading sessions.