Gas prices rise to another record high
The average U.S. pump price hit another record today, reaching $4.114 for a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline, up 1.9 cents from June 30, according to the Energy Department's weekly survey of filling stations.
California, where motorists are driving a lot less these days, continued to be the biggest counterweight, falling 2.3 cents to $4.550 a gallon.
Oil dropped because the dollar showed new strength against other currencies, the rhetoric on Iran's nuclear program cooled and the first hurricane of the Atlantic season turned north and appeared likely to miss the U.S. East Coast entirely. That shattered what one analyst called the "weekend worry premium."
Crude oil for August delivery fell $3.92 to close at $141.37 a barrel today on the New York Mercantile Exchange after slumping as low as $139.50 a barrel during the day.
"All the things the market was worried about last week -- the storm, Iran and the dollar -- didn't happen," said Phil Flynn, vice president and senior market analyst for Alaron Trading Corp in Chicago.
But analysts warned that the down day didn't mean the end of the oil run-up.
"In the old days, this would have been a drop of about a dollar or less. With these bigger numbers on oil, it just looks like a large pullback," said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service, a markets-tracking company in Wall, N.J.
"We might drift a little lower this week, but we'll be higher a month from now and oil will be above $150 before the end of the year," Kloza said.
Drivers, meanwhile, continue to look for new ways to cope.
San Jose resident Mike Atkins, 50, loves his 1984 Volkswagen Gti so much that he put the letters "Gti" in his e-mail address. Atkins, who is out of work, hasn't driven the car in more than a month.
"I just figured I wouldn't drive until prices started going down again, but it's just not happening," said Atkins, who is looking into buying a motor scooter or a bicycle. "It's just crazy, these prices."
ron.white@latimes.com
