WTI recovers above $63.00 as Russia shrugs off US deadline to avoid sanctions

• WTI price rebounds to near $63.35 in Tuesday's early Asian session. 
• Trump and Putin will meet on Friday in Alaska to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine.
• Concerns over deflationary pressure in China might cap the upside for WTI. 

West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the US crude oil benchmark, is trading around $63.35 during the early Asian trading hours on Tuesday. The WTI recovers some lost ground as Russia ignores the US deadline to end its war with Ukraine. Oil traders brace for the American Petroleum Institute (API) Crude Oil stockpiles report later on Tuesday. A potential meeting between the US and Russia in Alaska will be closely watched on Friday. 

US President Donald Trump threatened Russia to end its war with Ukraine or face heavy tariffs on its oil exports, as well as secondary sanctions on countries purchasing oil from Russia. The deadline expired last Friday, and Russia did not respond to the sanction threats. 

However, Trump said last week that he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday to discuss the Ukraine issue. In the absence of further developments between the US and Russia, talks could raise the prospect of tighter penalties on Moscow, which might lift the WTI price in the near term. 

On the other hand, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Saturday showed China's Producer Price Index (PPI) fell more than expected in July. This report suggested the impact of sluggish domestic demand and ongoing trade uncertainty on consumer sentiment. The concerns over persistent deflation in China could weigh on the WTI price as China is the world's second-largest consumer of oil and gas.