NEW YORK, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. oil prices dropped Monday after July durable goods orders came in weaker than expected.
New orders for manufactured durable goods in July tumbled 7.3 percent from the previous month following three consecutive monthly increases, weighed down by a weak demand for transportation equipment, the U.S. Commerce Department reported Monday.
The durable goods data marked the biggest drop in nearly a year and exceeding analysts' expectations of a 4-percent decrease.
Meanwhile, sales of new single family houses in July were 394, 000 at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, down 13.4 percent from June, according to statistics released by the U.S. Commerce Department.
Recent disappointing figures pointed to weakness in the world's largest economy, indicating previous expectation of the U.S. economy may be too optimistic and fueling speculation that the Fed is unlikely to wind down its bond purchases in September.
At the same time, a uptick in oil prices was also affected by supply concerns caused by the Middle East situation, analysts said.
Light, sweet crude for October delivery lost 0.50 dollars to settle at 105.92 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
While Brent crude for October delivery was down 0.31 dollars, or 0.3 percent, to close at 110.73 dollars a barrel.
