VLADIMIR DUTHIERS:
00:00:01
That's the opening bell on Wall Street. Leading tech company Oracle gets the honor of ringing the opening bell today. Taking a live look at the numbers on the Street after a losing session yesterday, the Dow is-- down about 300 points. I want to bring in Wall Street Journalreporter David Uberti, who is joining us now to talk more about this. Dave, good to see you as always, my friend. So the price of oil just skyrocketed above $100 a barrel for the first time in two months. How are the latest tensions in the Middle East disrupting the oil supply? Well, $100 per barrel is certainly a big psychological barrier to break. But if you actually go a step further and look at the fuel that people use in their day-to-day lives, those numbers are even more concerning, in large part because we have this simmering conflict in Ukraine in addition to the disruption in the Middle East. If you look at the average price of gasoline, it's above $4.20 a gallon across the US, according to AAA now. And even more concerning for the US economy is the price of diesel. We're approaching $6 a gallon nationally. That's already at a record price, and diesel goes into everything from farming equipment to rail operations to truckers and mining firms as well. It's the workhorse of the global economy. So that will put some pressure on US economic growth going into the fall months. And in addition, we are going to see some political impact from the higher prices of gasoline, even though these prices aren't high enough yet to crash the economy in any big way. People see the price of gasoline every time they go out in their cars, and it's a constant reminder that inflation is above the Federal Reserve's 2% target, and this is keeping interest rates higher. This is affecting not just what you put into your tank but also the cost of borrowing on things like mortgages and credit cards.
VLADIMIR DUTHIERS:
00:01:46
All right, Dave Uberti, always great to have your perspective, my friend. Thank you. Thank you.
