Gasoline prices are being helped lower by reduced seasonal pressure. Last week, the pump price for a gallon of regular gasoline fell another four cents (+0.4%) to $3.45 per gallon. Since their September peak prices have fallen 43 cents per gallon. Haver Analytics constructs seasonal factors to account for usual volatility and the adjusted price fell one penny w/w to $3.64 per gallon. Since their peak last month prices are down 22 cents per gallon.

The demand for gasoline rose a minimal 0.2% y/y. Residual fuel oil needs, used for heating, fell 13.6% y/y and distillate demand dropped 15.3% y/y. Lending some support to prices was a minimal 0.9% y/y decline in gasoline inventories.

The price for a barrel of light sweet crude oil held roughly steady at $85.99 per barrel and yesterday slipped to $85.38. Brent crude oil prices inched up last week to $108.92 per barrel and were $109.08 yesterday.

Natural gas prices fell last week to $3.39 per mmbtu but yesterday bounced upward to $3.58.

The energy price data are reported by the U.S. Department of Energy and can be found in Haver's WEEKLY database. The daily figures are in DAILY and the gasoline demand figures are in OILWKLY.