oil futures declined on tuesday poised to mark their lowest settlement in more than five weeks as investors focus on economic worries and awaited this weeks federal reserve policy decision oil prices have been declining since the market opened on monday following the release of disappointing data from china that revealed a drop in manufacturing activity in the worlds top oil importer ricardo evangelista senior analyst at activtrades wrote in emailed commentary the figures generated some concern amongst investors impacting growth perspectives for the worlds secondlargest economy and denting the global outlook for oil demand the negative impact of this news on oil prices was further amplified by the advance of a bearish sentiment in the market which has been driven by turbulence in the us banking sector and the looming rate hike by the federal reserve he said many regional banks saw their shares drop sharply on tuesday oil prices are so tied to banking woes so this news is crushing it phil flynn senior market analyst at the price futures group told marketwatch meanwhile the us central bank is expected to deliver another quarter of a percentage point interest rate increase on wednesday but may signal its ready to pause the ratehike cycle at its following meeting crude prices rose sharply in early april after saudi arabia and its opec allies announced an unexpected round of production cuts but gave up those gains by the end of the month opec is made up of the organization of the petroleum exporting countries and its allies including russia the postopec gains have now been wiped out which suggests traders are now of the belief that the economic outlook has deteriorated to the extent that the output cut wont create the deficit that was feared when some were calling for 100 oil craig erlam senior market analyst at oanda said in a note of course a lot can change over the coming weeks and months and almost certainly will but for now it seems the outlook for oil prices is as it was he wrote the energy information administration will release its weekly us petroleum supply report wednesday morning on average for the week ended april 28 analysts expect the report to show supply declines of 33 million barrels for crude 300000 barrels for gasoline and 15 million barrels for distillates according to a survey conducted by sp global commodity insights this content was created by marketwatch which is operated by dow jones  co marketwatch is published independently from dow jones newswires and the wall street journal