Oil Prices Under Pressure Ahead Of Fed Meeting

Crude oil prices began this week with by falling further, with West Texas Intermediate slipping below $70 in pre-noon trade in Asia. Both benchmarks shed more than 1% in Asian trade earlier today as traders took a cautious approach to the possibility of the Federal Reserve announcing yet another rate hike, even though there were signals it may pause the hikes. Most investment banks appear to expect a pause, Reuters noted in a report earlier today. The report quoted, however, a Morgan Stanley analyst as saying that "We maintain our call for a soft…