oil futures climbed on tuesday with us prices settling at their highest since january a day after posting the lowest finish in more than a week the oil market is “now stuck between two competing narratives” said troy vincent senior market analyst at dtn “on the bullish side you have hopes of opec cuts and a chinese economic rebound in the second half of the year pulling oil prices higher” he said “on the bearish side you have a growing expectation that the us will move into recession later this year pulling down growth hopes for developing economies as well” may west texas intermediate crude clk23 rose 179 or 22 to settle at 8153 a barrel on the new york mercantile exchange that was the highest frontmonth contract finish since jan 23 according to dow jones market data