Gasoline Prices Buck The Trend Ahead Of Driving Season

this week," said John Kilduff, an analyst at MF Global. Oil prices are dropping due to concerns about the global banking system, which has caused gasoline prices to drop as well.

Charles Kennedy

OilPrice.com

Analysts speculate that U.S. gasoline prices are trending around 3 cents lower last week than they were at the same time last year. This is because of concerns about the financial crisis and wider financial markets.

"The widespread concern about recent bank failures in the U.S. has had enough of an impact on oil prices, that we saw a temporary respite in rising gasoline prices last week,"

Patrick DeHaan is the senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy, a Chicago-based company.

DeHaan stated that markets are volatile and there will be some price differentiation as states switch to more expensive gasoline. However, much of the future's direction is dependent on how the banking crisis unfolds.

"Should the outlook in the banking sector improve, gasoline prices could race higher again, while continued distress or additional distress could increase the possibility of an even wider economic slowdown, keeping gasoline costs in check."

He said. "Overall, there's a lot to choose from."

Credit Suisse shares plunged 60% on Monday morning after UBS announced that it would buy the bank for $3B to support global markets. Credit Suisse shares plunged 60% last week after the failures at U.S. regional banks Silicon Valley Bank, (SVB), and Signature Bank.

According to

AAA

Monday's average natural gasoline price per gallon is $3.443, as opposed to $3.446 Sunday and $3.473 last week.

Monday marked the first drop in gasoline prices in the United States in two weeks.

Last week

Gasoline inventories dropped by 2.1 million barrels due to maintenance. Summer gasoline was also introduced to replace winter fuel. The underlying gasoline demand rose 32,000 bpd.