April 14, 2009 12:03 PM
- Text
Despite Gas Prices, Americans Hit The Road
(CBS/AP)
At the start of the biggest holiday weekend since gasoline price-hikes moved into the fast lane, gas is up more than 90 cents since February. It jumped another nickel overnight, to a nationwide average $3.88 a gallon.
The cost of fuel is keeping some Americans closer to home, and a AAA survey finds the number of Memorial Day travelers is down for the first time since 2002.
Still, nearly 38 million Americans are heading out of town, and paying the price, reports CBS News Business Correspondent Anthony Mason.
This Memorial Day weekend is one of the biggest on the NASCAR calendar, Mason reports.
It's the running of the Coca-Cola 600 in Concord, N.C. Since last week, fans have been pulling in from all over the country. Steve Biddle drove his motor home more than 1,100 miles from Enid, Okla. But this year, his trip cost him more than $1,000, with diesel fuel averaging more than $4 a gallon.
"About a buck-sixty higher than last year," Biddle lamented.
"Does that hurt?" Mason asked.
"It all hurts," Biddle said.
No other major American sport is hurt more by high gas prices than NASCAR, where fans travel 400 miles round-trip on average to see a race. But those aren't the only Americans hurting at the pumps.
As consumers began hitting the road Friday for the Memorial Day weekend, they faced the sobering reality that it now costs $87 to fill a Ford Explorer SUV, up $14 from last year, and $72 to fill a mid-sized Honda Accord, up $12.
That's because gas prices, which took another jump higher overnight, are up nearly 20 percent, or 65 cents a gallon, over the past year, to average nearly $3.88 a gallon nationally. But unlike this time last year, when gas prices were at their peak for 2007, pump prices now show no signs of halting their daily assault on the record books.
"Four dollars (a gallon) is a done deal now," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Ill. "We could go significantly above that."
On average, drivers in Alaska, Connecticut, California, New York and Illinois are already paying more than $4 for gas, and an increasing number of stations around the country are posting prices higher than $4. In Alaska, where the average price of regular gas stood at a national high of $4.181 Friday, it now costs $94 to fill an Explorer, and $77 to fill an Accord.
Nationally, the price of a gallon of regular gas rose 4.4 cents overnight to a record average of $3.875, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Prices are headed even higher in coming days because of oil's dramatic rally this week to a new record: more than $135 a barrel.
"We're going to see some more significant increases here in light of what we've seen in the last few days," said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J.
Oil prices fluctuated Friday after as investors placed bets before the long holiday weekend. Light, sweet crude for July delivery rose $1.38 to settle at $132.19 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after alternating between gains and losses.
Supporting prices was the dollar, which weakened against the euro and attracted more investment money to energy futures. A growing number of investors have come to view commodities such as oil as a hedge against inflation and a falling dollar. Also, a weaker greenback makes oil futures less expensive to investors dealing in other currencies. Many analysts see the dollar's protracted decline as one of the chief reasons oil prices have doubled over the past year.
Growing demand for fuel is also helping boost oil prices. Demand for diesel has spiked in China, where power plants in some areas are running short of coal after last week's earthquake. But even before the quake, Chinese diesel imports were rising sharply. China's government has released nearly 170,000 barrels of fuel from its strategic petroleum reserve this week to ensure adequate supplies in earthquake areas.
"China's just hungry for diesel," Ritterbusch said.
Diesel prices in the U.S. rose 5.9 cents to a record national average of $4.649 Friday, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Diesel's rise has been far more dramatic than gasoline's; diesel prices are $1.73 a gallon higher than one year ago. Diesel prices are averaging more than $5 a gallon in some parts of the U.S., and may rise above an average of $5 in California and New York state over the weekend, Kloza said. Diesel is used to fuel most industrial vehicles, and is a big part of the reason prices for food and consumer goods are rising.
Heating oil, which is closely related to diesel and often traded as a proxy for the fuel, rose above $4 a gallon on the Nymex on Thursday for the first time. On Friday, June heating oil futures fell 8.87 cents to settle at $3.8656 a gallon. Analysts cited profit-taking for the price swoon, but expect heating oil futures to resume their upward course next week.
Oil prices did come under some pressure Friday as some investors collected profits ahead of the weekend. Many analysts argue that oil prices have risen well beyond levels that can be justified by supply and demand fundamentals; an increasing number of analysts are referring to the situation as a bubble. U.S. demand for fuel and oil has fallen this year. Some analysts see signs in a recent switch in the relationship between the price of the current July crude contract and prices of crude for delivery in future months that tell them prices could soon fall.
Analysts also say a significant reduction in demand for gasoline could bring prices down. Energy Department data shows gasoline demand has fallen for much of the year, and new Federal Highway Administration data shows the number of miles Americans traveled fell 4.3 percent in March compared to the previous year - the first year-over-year drop in March travel since 1979.
But few analysts are willing to call an end to oil's rally, noting that investors just continue to plow money into the market, pushing prices ever higher.
"Big mo (momentum) is driving this thing now," Kloza said.
In other Nymex trading Friday, June gasoline futures rose 6.63 cents to settle at $3.396 a gallon, and June natural gas futures rose 16 cents to settle at $11.857 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, July Brent crude futures rose $1.06 to settle at $131.57 on the ICE Futures exchange.
At the start of the biggest holiday weekend since gasoline price-hikes moved into the fast lane, gas is up more than 90 cents since February. It jumped another nickel overnight, to a nationwide average $3.88 a gallon.
The cost of fuel is keeping some Americans closer to home, and a AAA survey finds the number of Memorial Day travelers is down for the first time since 2002.
Still, nearly 38 million Americans are heading out of town, and paying the price, reports CBS News Business Correspondent Anthony Mason.
This Memorial Day weekend is one of the biggest on the NASCAR calendar, Mason reports.
It's the running of the Coca-Cola 600 in Concord, N.C. Since last week, fans have been pulling in from all over the country. Steve Biddle drove his motor home more than 1,100 miles from Enid, Okla. But this year, his trip cost him more than $1,000, with diesel fuel averaging more than $4 a gallon.
"About a buck-sixty higher than last year," Biddle lamented.
"Does that hurt?" Mason asked.
"It all hurts," Biddle said.
No other major American sport is hurt more by high gas prices than NASCAR, where fans travel 400 miles round-trip on average to see a race. But those aren't the only Americans hurting at the pumps.
As consumers began hitting the road Friday for the Memorial Day weekend, they faced the sobering reality that it now costs $87 to fill a Ford Explorer SUV, up $14 from last year, and $72 to fill a mid-sized Honda Accord, up $12.
That's because gas prices, which took another jump higher overnight, are up nearly 20 percent, or 65 cents a gallon, over the past year, to average nearly $3.88 a gallon nationally. But unlike this time last year, when gas prices were at their peak for 2007, pump prices now show no signs of halting their daily assault on the record books.
"Four dollars (a gallon) is a done deal now," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Ill. "We could go significantly above that."
On average, drivers in Alaska, Connecticut, California, New York and Illinois are already paying more than $4 for gas, and an increasing number of stations around the country are posting prices higher than $4. In Alaska, where the average price of regular gas stood at a national high of $4.181 Friday, it now costs $94 to fill an Explorer, and $77 to fill an Accord.
Nationally, the price of a gallon of regular gas rose 4.4 cents overnight to a record average of $3.875, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Prices are headed even higher in coming days because of oil's dramatic rally this week to a new record: more than $135 a barrel.
"We're going to see some more significant increases here in light of what we've seen in the last few days," said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J.
Oil prices fluctuated Friday after as investors placed bets before the long holiday weekend. Light, sweet crude for July delivery rose $1.38 to settle at $132.19 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after alternating between gains and losses.
Supporting prices was the dollar, which weakened against the euro and attracted more investment money to energy futures. A growing number of investors have come to view commodities such as oil as a hedge against inflation and a falling dollar. Also, a weaker greenback makes oil futures less expensive to investors dealing in other currencies. Many analysts see the dollar's protracted decline as one of the chief reasons oil prices have doubled over the past year.
Growing demand for fuel is also helping boost oil prices. Demand for diesel has spiked in China, where power plants in some areas are running short of coal after last week's earthquake. But even before the quake, Chinese diesel imports were rising sharply. China's government has released nearly 170,000 barrels of fuel from its strategic petroleum reserve this week to ensure adequate supplies in earthquake areas.
"China's just hungry for diesel," Ritterbusch said.
Diesel prices in the U.S. rose 5.9 cents to a record national average of $4.649 Friday, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Diesel's rise has been far more dramatic than gasoline's; diesel prices are $1.73 a gallon higher than one year ago. Diesel prices are averaging more than $5 a gallon in some parts of the U.S., and may rise above an average of $5 in California and New York state over the weekend, Kloza said. Diesel is used to fuel most industrial vehicles, and is a big part of the reason prices for food and consumer goods are rising.
Heating oil, which is closely related to diesel and often traded as a proxy for the fuel, rose above $4 a gallon on the Nymex on Thursday for the first time. On Friday, June heating oil futures fell 8.87 cents to settle at $3.8656 a gallon. Analysts cited profit-taking for the price swoon, but expect heating oil futures to resume their upward course next week.
Oil prices did come under some pressure Friday as some investors collected profits ahead of the weekend. Many analysts argue that oil prices have risen well beyond levels that can be justified by supply and demand fundamentals; an increasing number of analysts are referring to the situation as a bubble. U.S. demand for fuel and oil has fallen this year. Some analysts see signs in a recent switch in the relationship between the price of the current July crude contract and prices of crude for delivery in future months that tell them prices could soon fall.
Analysts also say a significant reduction in demand for gasoline could bring prices down. Energy Department data shows gasoline demand has fallen for much of the year, and new Federal Highway Administration data shows the number of miles Americans traveled fell 4.3 percent in March compared to the previous year - the first year-over-year drop in March travel since 1979.
But few analysts are willing to call an end to oil's rally, noting that investors just continue to plow money into the market, pushing prices ever higher.
"Big mo (momentum) is driving this thing now," Kloza said.
In other Nymex trading Friday, June gasoline futures rose 6.63 cents to settle at $3.396 a gallon, and June natural gas futures rose 16 cents to settle at $11.857 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, July Brent crude futures rose $1.06 to settle at $131.57 on the ICE Futures exchange.
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