U.S. oil futures ended lower on Tuesday as traders assessed risks to global crude supplies and demand, ahead of weekly data on domestic petroleum inventories. The American Petroleum will issue its supply data late Tuesday, followed by official data from the Energy Information Administration early Wednesday. On average, analysts expect the EIA to report a decline of 1.7 million barrels in crude supplies for the week ended Jan. 22, according to a survey conducted by S&P Global Platts. They also forecast a weekly climb of 1.2 million barrels in gasoline stockpiles and a decline of 800,000 barrels for distillate inventories. Ahead of the data, March West Texas Intermediate crude
CLH21,
fell 16 cents, or 0.3%, to settle at $52.61 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.