Crude prices edged lower in Asia Tuesday with markets taking a breather after volatile trade the previous day as bearish manufacturing data quashed initial euphoria over a debt deal, analysts said.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for September delivery, slipped 27 cents to $US94.62 a barrel in the afternoon.
Brent North Sea crude for delivery in September fell 37 cents to $US116.44.
"I think (the market is) trading very sideways today after very choppy trading last night... markets are taking a pause," Serene Lim, oil and gas analyst for ANZ bank in Singapore, said.
Crude prices jumped in early Monday trade following US President Barack Obama's announcement of an 11th-hour deal to avert a potentially devastating debt default in the world's largest economy.
But they went back into the red after data showed US manufacturing slowed to a near standstill in July, highlighting increased and deep-seated concerns about the economy, analysts said.
The Republican-led House voted late Monday to approve the Obama-backed package to raise the limit on US borrowing and enact at least $US2.1 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade.
The Democratic-led Senate was expected to approve the emergency measure in a noon local time vote Tuesday - scarcely 12 hours before a midnight deadline by which the world's richest nation would run out of cash to pay its bills.
AFP