As I am sure is no secret to you readers by now, gas prices have been in a near freefall since late summer, with oil having dropped per barrel nearly 50%!
This is of course great news for the average folks like me, who it really puts a sting in the bank account when you have to fill up from near empty and it costs nearly $90! No longer though, gas is now at the nearby convenience store down to $2.35 as of this writing, and that fillup I will need soon will only be about $45.
This is of course great news for getting out and shooting some winter weather soon, or even some late fall lightning. I have been closely watching the daily oil barrel prices, and how they react to various news. Today they are currently at $63.41 as I write this, bouncing around all day between $64 and $61. I still feel like they are going to edge down through the end of the year into the $50s range. My personal opinion after watching this for a few months is that prices were way higher than the market could sustain, inflated by speculative investors. I think that has happened in a lot of markets, and just as all things do, they eventually balance themselves out, and that’s what is going on now.
Pump prices are still catching up to this, and I truly think we will see sub-$2/gal gas by the end of the year. It’s already showed up in a place or two around the country, and areas around Oklahoma City are close to that now.
I actually think this will be good for the upcoming holiday shopping numbers. Mostly because a large chunk of our population will now have quite a bit more money to spend on Christmas that was going to get us back and forth to work. Judging by Halloween sales, which have evidently not be curtailed by the daily economy doom and gloom news, I think the Christmas spending is a given. Halloween spending really isn’t a must, but it’s hard to skip out on Christmas. Not to mention just not having that $4/gal gas staring us in the face every day just puts you in a better spending mood.
Gas will of course go up some in the spring, as it always does when they switch over to the more expensive summer blends. But I think will still be under $2.50 come prime storm chasing time, and that is great news for next season.
Now if only mother nature doesn’t decide we need a big death ridge in the middle of the country in May!
The old Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times” is upon us.
Today gas came down here to $1.09/litre. At 3.8L per US gallon you can see we are still being hosed (pardon the pun) up in Canadiana. About 6 weeks ago it was $1.47/L so I guess we are supposed to feel grateful right now.
I saw prices tumble again today in Amarillo. $2.12-2.19. OMG..I never thought I’d see it this cheap ever again. I agree that it’s not over with yet. I honestly believed that anyting below $3 would have been a miracle. Strange times indeed.
I hope alot of speculators lost their shirts on this one. Maybe this will serve to temper such upward volatility in the future since I’m sure this will be fresh in their minds for awhile.
Down again here today, to $2.26. That’s 9 cents in 3 days!I think in Lubbock proper they are seeing some in the teens.
I was just reading an article that said that for every $1 gas drops at the pump puts an additional $100 million dollars in consumer pockets to spend on other things.
That further supports my theory for the Christmas buying season.
Well, some preliminary consumer numbers coming across are surprisingly good. I think the gas prices have alot to do with that as you pointed out.
Plus, with gas prices coming down, the costs associated with transporting goods will as well. Since trucking is a huge part of that, getting the diesal prices down from $4.50-5.00 into the mid $2 range will help. While not a big chunk of consumer goods costs, it will certainly help I think.
So, in agreeing with your theory and the other factors I mentioned, I believe this Christmas season will be a good one and a little shot in the arm of a very sick economy.
I wonder what 2009 holds in store as we start paynig for the behemoth bail-out and stimulus plans? Since our politicians don’t know how to balance a checkbook and cut out alot of bullshit spending, we the people are going to get to pay for it. The tax man cometh.
“Pump prices are still catching up to this, and I truly think we will see sub-$2/gal gas by the end of the year.”
That was my quote from my blog post here. Today, price next door dropped to $2.18/gal so I got on texasgasprices.com and checked to see how prices in Lubbock were doing. I see prices as low as $1.95/gal!! The Walmart in SW Lubbock were I often fill up is at $1.96.
This happened even faster than I thought it would. This is just incredible and I can’t help but get a little excited! LOL Even though it was a short time ago, it’s hard to believe we were paying $4/gal for gas. Seems almost like a distant nightmare now.