Oil prices edge lower, giving up early gains from death of Iran’s president (NYSEARCA:USO)

U.S. crude oil futures failed Monday to hold the $80 level that had been reached last week, as two U.S. Federal Reserve officials said they have not yet concluded that inflation trends are moving back to the central bank’s 2% target and are awaiting more signs that inflation was declining before it starts cutting interest rates.

The deaths of Iran’s president and foreign minister when their helicopter crashed Sunday in bad weather had little impact on the oil market, as Iranian oil policy likely will be unaffected because Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei holds ultimate power in the country.

“Oil is declining despite the death of Iran’s president, which should reinforce the risk premium, and despite a strong rally in metals and other commodities in response to China’s stimulus measures,” FxPro analyst Alex Kuptsikevich wrote, according to Dow Jones.

The oil market “appears increasingly numb to developments on the geopolitical front, likely due to the large amount of spare capacity OPEC is sitting on,” ING head of commodity strategy Warren Patterson said.

Front-month Nymex crude (CL1:COM) for June delivery closed -0.3% to $79.80/bbl, and front-month July Brent crude (CO1:COM) settled -0.3% to $83.71/bbl, snapping a three session winning streak for both benchmarks.

ETFs: (NYSEARCA:USO), (BNO), (UCO), (SCO), (USL), (DBO), (DRIP), (GUSH), (NRGU), (USOI)

Russian oil exports to China in April rose 30% from the same time a year ago, Reuters reports.

Russia has been the top supplier to China for 12 straight months, showing the shift in export patterns following the imposition of the G-7 oil price cap and other sanctions.

China imported a total 2.25M bbl/day of oil from Russia in April, as well as 980K bbl/day from Malaysia, which has served as a pass-through for sanctioned oil from Iran and Venezuela.