Crude oil prices continued to decline Tuesday morning, threatening to slide below $100 a barrel for the first time in two months amid expectations of a global supply glut.
Traders await Fed chair Janet Yellen's testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, scheduled at 10 am ET today.
Late on Tuesday evening, the American Petroleum Institute will come out with its weekly oil report.
And then Wednesday, the government is out with its official weekly crude oil inventories report.
Crude oil futures for August are down $0.79 or 0.78 percent at $100.12 a barrel, its lowest level since May 7.
Reports of escalating violence in key oil producing regions of the Middle East failed to give prices much support.
Fighting between rival militias over Tripoli International Airport could spiral into larger problems for Libya's fragile government just as shipments were set to resume from some major ports.
Meanwhile, natural gas is down $0.025 or 0.60 percent at $4.122 per million btu.
The U.S. Commerce Department will release its retail sales report for June at 8:30 am ET. Economists expect retail sales growth of 0.6 percent month-over-month in June and excluding autos retail sales may have grown at the same pace.
Around the same time, the New York Federal Reserve is due to release the results of its manufacturing survey for July at 8:30 am ET. The consensus estimate calls for a decline in the business conditions index based on the survey to 17.80 from 19.28 in June.
The U.S. Labor Department's report on export and import prices for June and the Commerce Department's report on business inventories for May will be out at 8:30 am ET and 10 am ET, respectively.
