Crude oil price rises more than $10 to another record

"It's like every time I look at the prices, they have jumped another 10 cents a gallon," groused James Freedner, 57, of Sun Valley. "I just don't know when this is going to stop."

The biggest one-day surge ever in crude prices was fueled by a mix of factors, including a gloomy U.S. job report and interest-rate fears that drove down the dollar, unease in the oil-rich Middle East and a prediction by a major brokerage firm that crude could hit $150 a barrel by July 4.

"Never before seen, unprecedented, amazing, epic, all those fit to describe today's [trading] session for crude oil and refined products," Denton Cinquegrana of the Oil Price Information Service wrote in a report to clients late Friday.

The $10.75-a-barrel jump at the New York Mercantile Exchange followed Thursday's increase of $5.49 and is expected to flow through quickly to the gas pump.

Motorists in California are paying a record average of $4.398 a gallon -- up 31% from a year ago and 12% in the last month, according to the latest AAA survey. The statewide average for a gallon of diesel -- burned by trucks, trains and other key components of the transportation system -- is $5.09 a gallon, 6 cents shy of its recent record.

"I'm expecting a 10-cent increase for my gasoline from Shell today," said Andre van der Valk, who owns four gas stations in Southern California and was selling regular for $4.499 a gallon.

"From the consumer end of it, it's a killer."

Freedner, who works as a legal secretary, knows all about that. High gas prices prompted him to cancel his annual Memorial Day trek to his cabin in San Benito County.

"I pity the people who really have to drive long distances, and I think a lot of people are doing what I'm doing, which is to just decide not to travel as much," he said. "You try to roll with the punches, but it's getting more and more annoying."

After hitting a then-record close of $133.17 on May 21, the price of oil had eased somewhat in recent weeks as the dollar firmed and demand for gasoline fell 6% in May compared with last year. But the doubling of crude prices over the last year is clearly showing up in many areas of the U.S. economy.