Gasoline almost back under $3

I was reading an article on Bloomberg by Bob Willis and Shobhana Chandra entitled "U.S. Economy: Core Prices Ease, Letting Fed Hold Rate (Update1)" and I ran across a quote from Stephen Stanley, chief economist at RBS Greenwich Capital, saying that "Consumers are in a sour mood, with gasoline prices above $3 a gallon," then I said to myself, wait a minute, is that still true?

I went and checked the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report and it says that as of Saturday, the nationwide average for regular unleaded gasoline was $3.008. Yeah, technically that is "above" $3, but not by enough to hang your hat on. Yes, prices were well above $3 a gallon a month ago, but have trended downwards consistently since they peaked at $3.227 on May 24.

With the wholesale unleaded gasoline price at $2.26 on Friday, the equilibrium retail price is $2.86 to $2.91, so we should see some further declines to get the headline gasoline price below that $3 psychological level, probably by the end of the week.

-- Jack Krupansky