Global| Dec 07 2010U.S. Gasoline Prices Jump With Crude Costs
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
The pump price for regular gasoline jumped ten cents last week to $2.96 per gallon. Prices have risen roughly fifty cents per gallon since the middle of last year and have surged from the December-2008 low of $1.61. Yesterday the spot [...]
The pump price for regular gasoline jumped ten cents last week to $2.96
per gallon. Prices have risen roughly fifty cents per gallon since the middle of
last year and have surged from the December-2008 low of $1.61. Yesterday the
spot market price for a gallon of regular gasoline of $2.38 was up from $2.27
averaged last week.
Crude oil prices rose last week to an average $86.36 for a barrel of light sweet crude oil (WTI). Yesterday, the crude price rose further to $89.38 per barrel.
Lastly, natural gas prices built on earlier seasonal improvement and rose last week to an average of $4.20 per mmbtu versus an average $3.49 in October. Yesterday, prices rose further to $4.43 but remained down from an early-January high of $6.50.
Demand for gasoline fell 0.5% in late-November versus last year after declines during October. The demand for residual fuel oil fell a greatly lessened 6.8% but distillate demand rose 8.8% y/y. Inventories of crude oil and petroleum products rose 0.9% during the last twelve months.
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.
Tom Moeller
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Prior to joining Haver Analytics in 2000, Mr. Moeller worked as the Economist at Chancellor Capital Management from 1985 to 1999. There, he developed comprehensive economic forecasts and interpreted economic data for equity and fixed income portfolio managers. Also at Chancellor, Mr. Moeller worked as an equity analyst and was responsible for researching and rating companies in the economically sensitive automobile and housing industries for investment in Chancellor’s equity portfolio. Prior to joining Chancellor, Mr. Moeller was an Economist at Citibank from 1979 to 1984. He also analyzed pricing behavior in the metals industry for the Council on Wage and Price Stability in Washington, D.C. In 1999, Mr. Moeller received the award for most accurate forecast from the Forecasters' Club of New York. From 1990 to 1992 he was President of the New York Association for Business Economists. Mr. Moeller earned an M.B.A. in Finance from Fordham University, where he graduated in 1987. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from George Washington University.
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