Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Funny How Gas Prices Stay Up Even When Oil Prices Go Down

 Ever notice how gas prices seem to hang in at elevated levels even when the price of oil goes down? The chart shows (in blue) the Spot Oil Price Per Barrel of West Texas Intermediate Oil, and (in red) the US Regular All Formulation Gas Price Per Gallon. At the yellow circles with the letters (a) through (e), notice how the price of gas lags the price of oil. At the letters f, g, and h, the gas price proportionally way overshoots the price of oil. Interestingly, at the letter i, for once, the price of gas lags the price of oil. This is most likely because at these peak levels, people started cutting back on their use of gas, due to the price, (i. e., the demand for gas saturated). In the current period, letters i and j, we are back to the normal trend, which is that gas prices are proportionally exceeding the oil price, and when oil prices go down the gas price stays up.


No comments:

Post a Comment