Thread: Oil falls to multiyear low but gasoline hits high for year

Now here is change we can believe in:

Oil falls to multiyear low but gasoline hits high for year
By MARK WILLIAMS Associated Press
Feb. 12, 2009, 12:23PM

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/bus ... 60165.html

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Oil prices stayed near new multiyear lows today because of growing doubts that the $789 billion stimulus package will reinvigorate the economy and demand for energy.

Retail gasoline prices, meanwhile, reached a new high for 2009 and appeared headed back to $2 a gallon as refiners cut back on production.

Light, sweet crude for March delivery was up 6 cents to $36 a barrel in midday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, but had dipped as low as $34.26 earlier in the day.

There were also more signs of economic weakness.

The number of people requesting first-time unemployment benefits dropped slightly last week, but remained near a 26-year high as companies lay off thousands of workers amid a deepening recession. The Commerce Department said the number of initial jobless benefit claims dropped to a seasonally adjusted 623,000, from an upwardly revised figure of 631,000 the previous week. The latest tally still was above analysts’ expectations of 610,00 claims.

The 631,000 figure was the highest number since October 1982, when the economy was emerging from a steep recession, though the labor force has grown by about half since then.

In a sign that laid-off workers are having difficulty finding new work, the number of people claiming benefits for more than one week rose to 4.81 million from 4.78 million, the highest total since records began in 1967. The continuing claims data lags the new claims numbers by one week.

Retail sales surprised analysts by rising 1 percent in January, reversing a six-month trend. Analysts said the rise was unlikely to last though and that much of the increase was due to rising gasoline prices.

The Democratic-controlled Congress and White House agreed Wednesday on a compromise $790 billion economic stimulus bill designed to create millions of jobs. President Barack Obama could sign the measure within days.

Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch and Associates, said it is unclear how much oil will benefit from the stimulus package and the Treasury Department’s plan announced earlier this week to spend more than $1 trillion to help remove banks’ soured assets from their books and unclog the credit markets.

“Just like the stock market, there’s a feeling of the malaise because of a lack of definition,â€

Prices are 34 cents higher than they were when they bottomed on Dec. 31, but still $1.02 below year-ago levels.

Which of course my state would love to scarf up and bring back to the all time high so they can get more money.....

Originally Posted by crazybird

Prices are 34 cents higher than they were when they bottomed on Dec. 31, but still $1.02 below year-ago levels.

Which of course my state would love to scarf up and bring back to the all time high so they can get more money.....

Gas has gone up about .50 a gallon here in Houston since the 1st of the year. The local new had a story on about how our big oil companies have so much gas stored they are going to have to shut down production. That combined with decreasing demand they just don't know what to do with the gasoline they have. So instead of losing money on this deal, they just fix the prices and drive the price of gas back up.

I thought now long ago we were told the price of gas was a supply and demand thing. The more we use, the more they charge. Now it is the more we don't use, the more they charge?

They are stealing from us any way they can...it is outrageous!

Anyone check out airfares to Europe? Many airlines still have a $270 fuel "surcharge" on a roundtrip.