Crude Oil Finishes Choppy Session Slightly Lower

(RTTNews) - The price of crude oil showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Tuesday before eventually ending the slightly lower.

After slipping $0.25 or 0.3 percent to $85.41 a barrel on Monday, crude for May delivery edged down $0.05 or 0.1 percent to $85.36 a barrel.

The choppy trading on the day came as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen indicated the U.S. plans to impose new sanctions on Iran in the coming days in response to the country's weekend attack on Israel.

"Clearly, Iran is continuing to export some oil," Yellen said. "There may be more that we could do. I don't want to preview our actual sanctions activities, but certainly that remains in focus as a possible area that we could address."

Traders also continued to await Israel's response to Iran's unprecedented missile and drone attacks, which were largely repelled.