Oil futures give up early gains; U.S. prices fall below $80 a barrel

Oil futures gave up early gains on Friday to trade more than 1% lower, with U.S. prices falling below the key $80 a barrel mark on an intraday basis. Traders are “looking to book profits ahead of the end of month and taking a safe position” ahead of the an OPEC+ committee meeting and the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decision both on Feb. 1, and the European Union’s ban on imports of Russian oil products on Feb. 5, said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at The Price Futures Group. March West Texas Intermediate crude
CLH23,
-2.01%
fell $1.35, or 1.7%, at $79.66 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down from an intraday high of $82.48.