Please note the gas futures are UP. That is speculation at work. So we may not see relief at the gas pumps thanks to money grubbing stock brokers. M

Oil prices tumble in biggest weekly drop ever
By ADAM SCHRECK, AP Business Writer
Sat Jul 19, 4:16 AM ET

Oil prices tumble in biggest weekly drop ever - Yahoo! News

The price of oil recorded its biggest weekly drop ever, and a gallon of gas finally pulled back from its record high. So is it time to declare the energy bubble popped?

Experts won't go that far just yet.

"It's too early to say we've seen the worst of it," said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst of the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J. "We would be Pollyannish if we believe one week represents a trend."

Still, with oil recording yet another drop on Friday, some industry experts who just days ago thought there was more juice left in oil's meteoric run are reconsidering.

"If this is not the bubble's implosion, than it's a reasonable facsimile," analyst and trader Stephen Schork said in his daily market commentary. "Time will tell. Nevertheless, for the time being we no longer care to hold a bullish view."

Light, sweet crude for August delivery fell 41 cents Friday to settle at $128.88 on the New York Mercantile Exchange — well below its trading record of more than $147 a week earlier.

The average price of a gallon of regular gas fell about a penny for the day, to $4.105, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express. Diesel prices dipped three-tenths of a cent to $4.842 a gallon.

Some analysts said a nationwide average of $4 or even lower could be in the offing — almost unthinkable in a summer when there has seemed to be no relief at the pump — although they cautioned that there is no guarantee prices will stay low.

"We're going to see some relief from that relentless march higher," Kloza said.

Gas may be getting just a bit cheaper, but major changes in how Americans live and drive are already in motion.

Car buyers have been fleeing to more fuel-efficient models. U.S. sales of pickups and sport utility vehicles are down nearly 18 percent this year through June, while sales of small cars are up more than 10 percent.

While slashing production of more-profitable trucks and SUVs, automakers have been scurrying to build their most fuel-efficient models faster.

Toyota Motor Corp., which hasn't been able to keep up with demand for its 46-miles-per-gallon Prius hybrid, said last week it will start producing the Prius in the U.S. and suspend truck and SUV production to meet changing consumer demands.

Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. also have announced plans to increase small car production, and GM has said 18 of the 19 vehicles it is launching between now and 2010 are cars or crossovers.

Some brave traders used the week's pullback in oil prices as a chance to buy barrels that suddenly seemed to be on sale. But oil analysts were advising investors to beware.

"Buying here is an opportunity if you are a deep believer in $200 (a barrel), otherwise we think that caution would be better applied," analyst Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix in Switzerland said in a research note.

If oil buyers sense that the slide was overdone, you'll probably notice at the pump quickly.

"If (oil prices) rebound, you're going to see a quick reaction at the gas station, because their profit margins are so stretched," AAA spokesman Geoff Sundstrom said. "They may be very fast bringing prices back up."

In other Nymex trade, heating oil futures fell 5.23 cents to settle at $3.6915 a gallon while gasoline futures edged up 0.73 cent to $3.1709 a gallon. Natural gas futures rose 3.3 cents to $10.57 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude futures for September delivery rose 88 cents to settle at $130.19 on the ICE Futures Exchange.

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National Debt =

Well, sure. Gotta bring the prices down, so you can purchase more, then jack the price up to be able to sell it, duh!

Ain't it great when thirty rich people hold all the cards, and get to manipulate things with immunity, to profit directly off the backs of the rest of us? Regulation, schmegulation!

God bless America!

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Walgreens has basic financial calculators for sale for $1.79. Send one to your Congressional representative for Xmas, this year!

What I am pointing to in the article is for the people the believe in only supply and demand and poo poo any thought that speculation also needs to be considered. Here we have a substantial drop in the price of oil. That should mean an equivalent drop in the price of gas at the pump. What I highlighted in red is direct evidence that the prices will stay high or no drop by much and the what is causing this is the SPECULATION.

When you think of the inflation the high prices are causing and the hardship it is pushing onto the working poor and elderly, it could make you want to smack around a few of those money grubbing speculators. Someone that wants profits at the expense of national hardship is a sociopathic SOB.

Let's take gas and oil off of the stock markets as a commodity and force the money grubbers onto some other commodity.

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National Debt =

Absolutely. I dislike the blatant manipulation of markets by pure speculation. We may have passed Peak Oil, but it's not like we're down to the last five drops. There's no reason other than market games that oil has shot up like it has.

Things like oil, electricity, water and other staple utilities should not be subject to normal market forces. Markets assume motility for the consumer, that keeps competition and prices honest. Not so with this sort of stuff. Regulate the hell out of it, I say.

Now is where I get screeched at for daring to suggest that the almighty free market is less than perfect.....

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Walgreens has basic financial calculators for sale for $1.79. Send one to your Congressional representative for Xmas, this year!

I don't see free market capitalism in America. That is using Adam Smith, poor guy, to hide behind to actually conduct a government assisted profits for billionaires and corporate cartels. We do not have free market capitalism.

And the old Reaganomics trickle down ain't happening. In the good ol days you had the rich people pissing on the poor people as trickle down. We have now changed to a trickle out economy where billionaire corporations are outsourcing jobs while billionaires themselves move their money into offshore banking accounts. The money and job flow is to other countries. It is a kind of economic treason. Billionaires are not supporting the US infrastructure they depended upon to get rich. If there is no loyalty, that is the definition of a sociopath.

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National Debt =

Read this during my break today. Saw a 5-7 cent drop at local stations as well.

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May your paradise always be green, you liberties always be full, and may the ignorance of you enemies not drive you to be pro-nuke.

"We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself
into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and
trying to lift himself up by the handle."-Winston Churchill

My stations are currently sitting at 4.18 a gallon, down from their high of 4.31 a gallon about 3 weeks ago.

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Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

We will see a small drop but it won't the the drop one would expect just going on supply and demand or on the theory that the price of gas is directly related to the price of oil. If the oil price and gas price were connected like that, we would see the same percentage drop.

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National Debt =

Actually, based on supply and demand, oil and gas won't have a 1:1 ratio in price.

For example. In March of 2002 the price was around $20 per barrel.



But regular gas was an nation average of $1.30 per gallon. Link

So since then, gas prices have gone up 211.5%, while oil prices have gone up over 600%. If Oil and Gas were tied 1:1, we'd be looking at gas at over $9 a gallon.

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Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

Gas prices are not going to go down. Oil could fall to $5.00 a barrel and gas prices still wouldn't go down.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."