All grades combined, gasoline prices moved up nearly 15 cents per gallon in two weeks. That price is $2.52. The biggest seller, self-service regular, is about $2.50 per gallon, and it's also up about 15 cents per gallon in two weeks. |
All point to lower prices at the pump, |
Both of those have been corrected, |
Chances are prices will be higher than they are now in the coming weeks, as we use more gasoline, and new regulations make gasoline more expensive to make. |
Crude oil prices have been working their way through to the pump, and gasoline demand growth in June -- over June 2004 -- fueled the price hikes, |
Dealers are losing their profit margins, cutting prices to get sales, |
Drops of this magnitude, if any, are not very likely going forward because gasoline demand will bottom out this month as it always does in January. |
Economic growth has allowed us to absorb these higher prices, |
For the near future, however, any future price cuts are likely to be much smaller than what we've seen in the last month. |
Gasoline price changes are lagging behind those of crude, and there's more catching up to do, |
Higher crude-oil prices and higher costs from this year's new regulations affecting gasoline recipes are the two main drivers of the price surge. |
I don't think it has peaked and I don't think an increase in oil production immediately can offset the immediate up pressures that exist specific to the U.S. gasoline market. |
I think it's over. The slightly higher crude oil prices combined with a recovery in gasoline demand is ending the retail gasoline price crash. |
I think two factors to look at in considering the rise are crude oil prices and gas demand. |
If crude does not correct downward, then that's the equivalent of another 5 cents per gallon rise. |