Sunday 25 September 2022 03:08 PM Gas prices rise for a fifth day to $3.417 per gallon after hikes in Federal ... trends now
The average price for a gallon of gas in the US has risen for a fifth day in a row after interest rates set by the Federal Reserve increased to 3.25 percent amid fears of a global recession.
On Sunday, the price of a gallon of gas was benchmarked at $3.714 a gallon, AAA reported. Oil prices have only gone up since Wednesday morning, when the price per gallon dramatically increased to $3.681 per gallon from $3.674 a day earlier.
A 99-day run of falling gasoline prices — a streak that gave consumers a glimmer of hope that red-hot inflation might be cooling — ended last week, with pump prices still much higher than a year ago.
The nationwide average price for a gallon ticked up less than a penny on September 20, to $3.68 a gallon, according to AAA. That's down from the record $5.02 average in mid-June.
America's gas prices rose for the fifth day in a row time to $3.71 on Sunday, a little more than a week after the country's gas prices rose for the first time to $3.68 in nearly 100 days, which marked an end to a historic streak of falling prices driven by stronger supply and weaker demand for fuel
The 99-day decline - spurred by ongoing supply chain woes and the war between oil-rich Russia and Ukraine - saw prices rise to as high as $10 in some states, and a record national average of $5.02 in June before the latest increase since September 19
The question now is whether Sunday's increase continues the trend of elevating oil prices for the rest of the month and into the start of October or lowering prices seen in August and for most of September returns. The answer matters to motorists and to President Joe Biden, who has taken credit for driving prices lower by releasing millions of barrels of oil from the nation's reserves.
The 14-week decline in prices was the longest streak since 2015.
Gasoline prices mostly reflect trends in global oil prices, and crude — both the U.S. benchmark and the international Brent — have been slumping since mid-June on growing fears of a global recession that would reduce demand for energy.
Many energy analysts believe that prices are more likely to rise than fall in the next few months.
However, changes in sentiment about the economy, Russia's war against Ukraine, and even hurricane season — always a threat to disrupt refineries along the Gulf Coast — make predictions uncertain.
'I suspect that we will see choppy prices for gasoline through year end, with some down days and up days,' said Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information Service. He predicted that the next streak will be a run of price increases early next year, driven by investors, speculators and 'the fear that there won't be enough fuel to go around.'
Phil Flynn, an analyst with the Price Futures Group, said prices will head higher once withdrawals from U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve — a million barrels per day for six months — end this fall.
'The market is going to start pricing that in, and refiners are not going to be getting this
