Diesel Dips a Penny to $3.88 a Gallon
Diesel declined 1 cent to $3.88 a gallon, its first decline in three weeks, while gasoline fell 2.8 cents to $3.645, the Department of Energy reported.
Trucking’s main fuel had gained 4.5 cents in two previous increases, DOE figures showed. Prior to that, it fell 31.4 cents in 10 straight downturns.
Gasoline took its first drop in a month. The motor fuel had risen 15.3 cents in three straight gains, including last week’s 7-cent jump.
Diesel’s pump price is 1.7 cents below the same week last year, while gasoline is 2.5 cents cheaper than a year ago, DOE said following its weekly survey of filling stations.
This week’s price surveys were released Tuesday because of the Memorial Day holiday Monday.
Diesel rose in one region, the Rocky Mountains, where it gained 1.5 cents to $3.863. It also rose in the East Coast’s Central Atlantic subregion, where it edged up 0.3 cent to $3.928.
The biggest decline was in California, where diesel fell 2.8 cents to $4.044, although that was the highest price of any region or subregion, and the only area in which the price topped $4 a gallon.
Crude oil, meanwhile, rose 86 cents Tuesday to finish the trading day at $95.01 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest closing price in a week, Bloomberg News reported.
The price moved higher in part because of a report Tuesday that showed consumer confidence rose to a five-year high, Bloomberg said.
Each week, DOE surveys about 400 diesel filling stations and 800 gasoline stations to compile national average prices.
