Oil prices ended marginally higher after stronger-than-expected China GDP growth which prompted overnight gains. But most of that was given back by the close as a key German investor sentiment survey weighed on crude, "as optimism for the eurozone's largest economy remains downbeat in the coming quarters," said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA, in a market update.

"Oil isn't getting any good news here and that means prices could continue to hover around the $80 a barrel level, or even see a tentative dip below if sellers get some help from a strong dollar."

Expectations are for more inventory draws this week.

API

The third weekly crude draw of the last four weeks. Stocks at Cushing saw another decline while product inventories rounded out the across-the-board decline in stocks...

Source: Bloomberg

WTI was hovering around $80.80 ahead of the API data and rose very modestly after...

Looking ahead, economic data will be in focus as a "strong economic recovery in China and the avoidance of hard landings in Europe and the U.S. are both priced into the market with WTI trading with an $80 handle," said analysts at Sevens Report Research in Tuesday's newsletter.

So, while the path toward new year-to-date highs in WTI is narrow, it is "possible," they said.

"Growth data in the U.S. and Europe will need to be Goldilocks while better-than-expected data from China would be a welcomed surprise."