Retail gas rises for 49th straight day
Retail gas prices on a streak as summer approaches
Dirk Lammers, AP Energy Writer
On Tuesday June 16, 2009, 12:05 pm EDT
Buzz up! Print.Related:United States Oil
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- It's energy's version of Joe Dimaggio's historic 56-game hitting streak, only this time no one is cheering.
Related Quotes
Symbol Price Change
USO 39.22 +0.70
{"s" : "uso","k" : "c10,l10,p20,t10","o" : "","j" : ""} Retail gas prices began a steady climb from around $2.05 near the end of April and, for a 49th straight day, did so again overnight on Tuesday.
"This is unprecedented," said Fred Rozell, retail director at the Oil Price Information Service.
Prices at the pump on Tuesday gained a half cent to $2.674 a gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and OPIS, surpassing early 2007 when prices moved up 48 straight days from January 31 through March 18.
Benchmark crude for July delivery also reversed a two-day slide, gaining $1.23 to $71.85 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Rozell said that even during strong gasoline rallies in 2007 and 2008, prices tended to back off after gains of 20 to 40 cents per gallon.
Whether gas prices make it to 56, however, is in doubt.
Last year on this day, wholesale prices for gasoline peaked and began to fall, which was much later than the norm. There is a good chance gas prices are about to level off, with signs of weakening wholesale prices in key markets.
A big reason for climbing energy prices this year is the weak dollar, which fell again Tuesday as Russia's president suggested that his country and China invest in each other's debt, rather than buying U.S. Treasuries.
"Yesterday it was all nice talk about the confidence in the dollar and U.S. bonds from Russia, China and Brazil but today it might be a dollar bash," Alaron Trading Corp. analyst Phil Flynn said in his morning report.
Oil has doubled in value since March, rising alongside equity markets on expectations that the worst of the global economic slowdown might be over.
The Dow Jones industrial average had rebounded 34 percent and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index 40 percent since sinking to 12-year lows on March 9.
A report Wednesday about the amount of crude and gasoline in U.S. storage houses could send prices rocketing, however. Much of the investment money that has entered oil markets in recent months is keying not only on the dollar, but on any sign that demand for oil is rebounding faster than had been predicted even last month.
In other Nymex trading, gasoline for July delivery rose 4.2 cents to $2.095 a gallon and heating oil gained 4.23 cents to $1.8579. Natural gas for July delivery fell less than a penny to $4.374 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, Brent crude prices gained $1.71 to $71.95 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Associated Press Writers Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Hungary, and Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.
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