SINGAPORE  - Crude prices edged down in Asian trade Tuesday as traders fretted over performances by the US retail and corporate sectors, analysts said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for August delivery, fell 36 cents to $74.59 a barrel in the afternoon.

Brent North Sea crude for August shed 38 cents to $73.99.

Worries about the US economy clouded sentiment, with analysts predicting a slightly worse performance when US retail sales statistics are released on Wednesday.

"Crude prices have been quite correlated with economic data.... If the retail sales fell worse than expected, yes" crude prices would fall, said Serene Lim, oil and gas analyst with ANZ bank in Singapore.

The market also shrugged off US aluminium giant Alcoa's better-than-expected earnings report on Monday, which kicked off the corporate earnings season.

Alcoa, the first of the 30 blue-chip Dow industrials to report second-quarter earnings, said it had swung to a second-quarter net profit of $136 million compared with a loss of $454 million  a year ago.

Earnings per share of 13 cents came in slightly better than the average forecast of 12 cents.

Results are expected in the coming days from Google, General Electric, Citigroup, Bank of America, Intel and JPMorgan Chase.