Oil dropped by an even greater amount, losing nearly 6 percent, to a six month low on Thursday - near $86 a barrel! It settled at $86.63 Thursday - the lowest level in 6 months. Investors shrugged off U.S. job gains and focused on lingering concerns about the global economy. Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery fell $1.70 to $84.93 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This should be good news for motorists. If oil stays at the lower levels, the drop could be seen within days at gas pumps across the United States. Fred Rozell, retail pricing director at Oil Price Information Service, said the recent slide in oil could cut between 20 to 35 cents from a gallon of regular over the next month. According to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service, retail gasoline prices slipped overnight to $3.70 per gallon.
"You could see some sizable declines at the pump," Rozell said.
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Prices listed on a marquis at an Exxon station
July 26, 2011 |
Oil prices pulled back from an early surge. A government report on Friday morning showed employers added 117,000 jobs in July. Unemployment fell slightly to 9.1 percent. This news helped push crude as high as $88.32 before it tapped off. Earlier in the summer, investors were still holding on to the notion that fuel prices would rise as economies in the U.S. and Europe recovered from the Great Recession. Even a pullback in U.S. gasoline consumption couldn't push oil back from around $100 per barrel. The drop in crude—oil is down from near $115 in May—should also lower costs for products such as gasoline and help free up some consumer purchasing power.
Source Yahoo News/Chris Kahn (AP)
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