U.S. crude oil fell below $81 a barrel Wednesday in the third straight day of losses as hopes for cease-fire in Gaza and growing concerns about the future course of interest rates in the U.S. weighed on prices.

U.S. crude oil is now off 8% from its intraday high for the year of $87.67, when traders bid up prices on fears that Iran and Israel were on the brink of war. 

Here are today’s energy prices:

• West Texas Intermediate June contract: $80.46 a barrel, down $1.43, or 1.75%. Year to date, U.S. crude oil is up 12.6%.
• Brent July contract: $84.99 a barrel, down $1.34, or 1.55%. Year to date, the global benchmark is up 10.5%.
• RBOB Gasoline June: $2.66 a barrel, down 1.26%. Year to date, gasoline is up 26.7%.
• Natural Gas June contract: $1.94 per thousand cubic feet, down 2.4%. Year to date, natural gas is down 22.6%.

Traders will be closely monitoring the Federal Reserve’s meeting Wednesday for any indication of the central bank’s future course on interest rates.

A raft of data recently has demonstrated that inflation is proving stubborn, consumer confidence is falling, and the U.S. economy is growing more slowly than expected.

In the Middle East, the U.S. and its partners continue to push for a cease-fire in Gaza. An Israeli delegation is in Cairo, Egypt, where negotiations are taking place, an Israeli official told NBC News.

A Hamas delegation was in Cairo Monday to discuss a proposal to release 33 hostages in exchange for a cease-fire and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

A Hamas official told NBC News that main obstacle to an agreement is settling on an end to the war in Gaza. The official said Hamas does not have a specific date for when it will respond to the current cease-fire proposal.

Microsoft has signed a deal with Brookfield Asset Management to invest more than $10 billion to develop renewable energy capacity to power the growing demand for artificial intelligence and data centers, the companies announced on Wednesday.

Brookfield will deliver 10.5 gigawatts of renewable energy for Microsoft between 2026 and 2030 in the U.S. and Europe under the agreement. The companies described the deal as the largest single electricity purchase agreement signed between two corporate partners.

The 10.5 gigawatts of renewable capacity is 3 times larger than the 3.5 gigawatts of electricity consumed by data centers in Northern Virginia, the largest data center market market in the world.

A Brookfield spokesperson said the deal would lead to more than $10 billion of investment in renewable energy.

The scope of the deal could increase to include additional energy capacity in the U.S. and Europe, as well as Asia, Latin America and India, the companies said. The agreement will focus on wind, solar and new carbon-free technologies.

The U.S. faces surging electricity demand as the advent of AI coincides with the expansion of semiconductor and battery manufacturing in the U.S., as well as the electrification of the nation’s vehicle fleet. After a decade of flat growth, total electricity consumption in the U.S. is expected to surge by 20% through the end of the decade, according to an April Wells Fargo Research note.

Microsoft has pledged to have 100% of its electricity matched by zero-carbon energy purchases by 2030.