The U.S. average retail price of regular grade gasoline fell 9 cents per gallon in the past two weeks. It is now $2.992.
The current price is the lowest since April of 2021, just four months shy of a five-year low.
Also, pro-consumer is the discount to a year ago, now much widened: The current price is 13.4 cents per gallon, lower than its year-ago point.
Whether the far lower retail price is low enough to stop the withering of U.S. gasoline remains to be seen. It will depend on what prices of non-fuel goods and services do. And the currently low gasoline prices would have to be sustained, at least for some months, for gasoline demand growth to come back.
Crude oil prices strengthened a bit late last week. The U.S. blockade of ships entering or leaving Venezuela that are sanctioned, and the pessimism in the market about a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire agreement coming anytime soon, can potentially stop gasoline prices from falling further or climb higher.
Last week, Lundberg's daily wholesale price surveys of each class of trade revealed continuing price drops, although at a lower rate than in the prior week. If the latest wholesale price reductions around the country are not quickly reversed, we may see pump prices drop again—perhaps a nickel or far more—before the winter holidays are past and 2026 begins.
During the past two weeks, gasoline retailers received a weighted average wholesale price cut of 13 cents per gallon for regular grade. Nine of those pennies were passed through to motorists.
Upshot, retail gasoline margin on regular currently sits at a gleaming 48.6 cents. On average, retailers gained another 4 cents. Further wholesale price cuts may well allow retailers to cut street prices very soon—maybe another nickel or far more.
Trilby Lundberg is publisher of the Lundberg Survey of U.S. fuel markets. Lundberg Survey Inc. is based in Camarillo, California.
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