Oil prices dropped below $124 a barrel today and after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled that inflation had become a more prominent concern.

Prices are now more than $11 below the trading record of $135.09 a barrel hit on May 22.

Evidence continues to mount that oil prices, nearly twice what they were a year ago, have finally cut into demand.

The latest MasterCard SpendingPulse survey found that demand for gasoline in the U.S. fell by 4.7 percent last week — which included the long Memorial Day holiday weekend — compared to the same week last year.

The U.S. is by far the world's largest consumer of energy and oil products, and swings in demand there can have an outsized impact on global prices.

BANGKOK, Thailand — U.S. Navy ships are leaving Myanmar after failing to get permission to unload aid to "ease the suffering of hundreds of thousands" of cyclone survivors, the top U.S. military commander in the Pacific said.Word of the aborted mercy mission comes even as the United Nations warned that a month after the cyclone swept through Myanmar, more than 1 million people still don't have adequate food, water or shelter and junta policies are hindering relief efforts.Adm. Timothy Keating ordered the vessels to leave the Myanmar area Thursday, after the U.S. made at least 15 attempts to convince Myanmar's leaders to allow ships to offload their aid.Myanmar's state media has said it feared a U.S. invasion aimed at seizing oil deposits.