TOKYO, May 9 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Tuesday, relinquishing some of the strong gains in the previous two sessions while the market remained cautious ahead of U.S. inflation figures for April, which will be key to the Federal Reserve's next interest rate decision.
"Oil prices have rebounded somewhat in the last two sessions, so now is time for a pause ... with no real positive data coming out," said Suvro Sarkar, lead energy analyst at DBS Bank.
"The market is cautious today ahead of the inflation data.... With net long positions declining sharply over the last two weeks, a lot of traders are already out of the market, so volumes are low."
While oil markets fell sharply last week, prices rose on Friday and Monday as fears of recession eased in the U.S., the world's biggest oil consumer, and some traders saw crude's three-week slide on demand worries as overdone.
"Oil prices won't be able to rise that much from here given all the growth demand fears, but expectations are high for OPEC+ to try to keep prices above the $70 a barrel level," Moya's note said.