Oil price extends losses on technical selling

U.S. oil price continued to fall Tuesday, as investors chose to lock in gains after the crude hit a multi-month high recently.

Following Monday's negative sentiment which had the U.S. oil price retreat from its near-nine-month high last Friday, the crude posted a volatile session Tuesday before closing in negative territory.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday arrived in Iraq's semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan to discuss the Iraqi crisis with the Kurdish leaders, official Iraqi television reported.

Despite ongoing concerns in Iraq, the second largest oil producer of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), analysts believed that conflicts in the country, with its main production and export operations concentrating in the south, haven't substantially disrupted oil supply so far.

U.S. economic data coming out generally positive in the day temporally propped up oil price which settled lower at the close.

Sales of U.S. new single-family houses in May surged 18.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 504,000 from the prior month, according to the Commerce Department, easily surpassing market consensus of 441,000.

The Conference Board consumer confidence index improved to 85.2 in June, the biggest since January in 2008, up from 82.2 in May, also beating analyst expectations of 83.7.

Light, sweet crude for August delivery declined 14 cents to settle at 106.03 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for August delivery rose 34 cents to close at 114.46 dollars a barrel.