Oil slides below $70 a barrel
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Gas prices rose Monday for the 48th straight day, matching a record for this decade, with prices now up nearly two-thirds since the beginning of the year even as demand for gas remains weak.
Yet the oil prices that influence what you pay at the pump are taking a breather from a three-month rally, with benchmark crude for July delivery falling nearly 3 percent, or $2.06 to $69.98 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Friday, it fell 64 cents to settle at $72.04.
Crude's upward track has been mirrored by the declining value of the dollar. That's because crude futures are bought and sold in U.S. currency, meaning that crude gets cheaper for many buyers as the dollar falls.
That has brought a lot of money into the market in recent months, yet as could be expected with the dollar gaining strength for a second straight day Monday, crude prices are falling.
So was the Dow Jones industrial average, tumbling 200 points to start the week.
Prices at the pump rose 0.6 cents to $2.669 a gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Services. Prices are a nickel above where they were a week ago and 30.8 cents above month-ago levels, but remain $1.408 below year ago levels.
Consumers are now paying about $1 billion a day for gasoline compared with about $600 million a day over New Year's weekend and $1.5 billion a day or more a year ago, according to Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service.
The more than 60 percent increase in prices so far this year exceeds anything going as far back as the 1970s, Kloza said.
The good news is that prices look like they may be peaking. Wholesale gasoline prices in the Chicago area have fallen about 30 cents a gallon from just 10 days ago, he said.
In other Nymex trading, gasoline for July delivery fell 3 cent to $2.0135 a gallon and heating oil fell 4.1 cents to $1.7965. Natural gas for July delivery rose 18.8 cents to $4.045 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, Brent prices fell $1.57 to $69.35 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.