Oil futures finished with a loss on Monday, with traders weighing the prospects for energy demand. A “shockingly strong” Empire State Manufacturing Index reading Monday helped to live the odds of an interest-rate hike by the Federal Reserve in May, said Tyler Richey, co-editor at Sevens Report Research. That “poured some cold water on the recent rise in [economic] ‘soft landing’ hopes, which were the reason for oil’s break higher last week.” With the yield curve “inverted to historic levels and sentiment towards the banking system still fragile, the threat that more rate hikes by the Fed…pushes the economy into a deep recession remains a very real threat to energy demand in the quarters ahead,” he said. May West Texas Intermediate crude CLK23 fell $1.69, or nearly 2.1%, to settle at $80.83 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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