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Crude oil futures relinquished part of the gains made in early Asian trading after failing to remain above $75 a barrel Tuesday. Failure to convincingly break through the psychological level weakened market sentiment, which triggered profit-taking, analysts from Dominion Provident Ventures, Inc. said.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude futures for delivery in March traded at $74.66 a barrel at 0637 GMT, rising $0.23 in the Globex electronic session. March Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange climbed $0.18 to $73.29 a barrel. Nymex crude extended gains early, lifted by the overnight 2.1% rise in New York on better-than-expected company earnings and economic indicators in the U.S.. However momentum evaporated soon after the price bested $75 a barrel.

The “disappointing” turnaround prompted investors to close their long positions, says DPVI, citing Koichi Murakami, analyst of Tokyo-based broker Daiichi Shohin. Investors are now timid about building on positions because of uncertainty over possible new regulations on futures trading in the U.S. and a stronger dollar against the euro, Mitsubishi Corporation Futures analyst Tomokazu Amano said. A next focus will be the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s weekly oil inventory data, due Wednesday.