Crude oil futures declined on Tuesday as the latest minutes of US Federal Reserve’s meeting revealed no chances of further easing in monetary policy. The news strengthened the US dollar making commodities and crude oil less attractive.

The dollar index DXY which tracks the US dollar movement against the basket of its six major rivals gained to 79.387 on Tuesday as compared to 78.973 on Monday’s North American trading session.

Crude oil futures contract for May delivery fell 1.2 percent or $1.22 to settle at $104.01 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude oil gained in earlier session despite the decision of Iraqi Kursdish region to halt is oil exports while the US manufacturing data helped in boost of the crude oil prices.

The US Commerce Department also reported the increase of 1.3 percent in factory orders for the month of February as compared to analysts’ revised expected decrease of 1.1 percent.

Among other energy commodities, gasoline futures contract for May delivery gained 0.4 percent or $0.01 to settle at $3.40 per gallon while heating oil futures contract for the same month delivery fell 0.7 percent or $0.02 to settle at $3.23 per gallon.

Natural gas futures contract for May delivery gained 1.6 percent or $0.03 to settle at $2.19 per million British thermal units.