Banking concerns keep retail gasoline prices under control

March 20 (UPI) — Analysts warned on Monday that volatility could soon hit retail gasoline prices, which are held back by lingering fears of a global banking crisis.

The AAA Travel Club listed a national average retail price of $3.44 per gallon of regular unleaded gasoline. on Monday, about 3 cents lower than this time last week. Prices usually start to rise around this time of the year when the weather gets warmer and refineries start making more expensive gasoline, but broader financial concerns prevent any significant growth.

“Wide-wide concern about the recent failures of the US and global banking systems has put enough downward pressure on oil prices that we saw a respite in the national average increase in gasoline prices last week,” said Patrick DeHaan, senior oil analyst at Chicago. based on GasBuddy.

Swiss investment bank UBS announced over the weekend that it was buying struggling Credit Suisse. The takeover followed the collapse of California’s Silicon Valley Bank and New York’s Signature Bank, both of which went bankrupt due to a focus on startups and cryptocurrencies, as well as broader liquidity problems.

While market analysts are quick to point out that these are not the same circumstances that caused the big banks to fail during the 2007-2008 subprime mortgage crisis, market indices retreated heavily last week and were looking for direction early Monday.

Both the Dow and the S&P 500 posted modest gains in early trading on Wall Street on Monday, although the high-tech NASDAQ was in negative territory. The price of Brent crude oil, the global oil price benchmark, even at the opening of trading was $72.93 per barrel.

Brent lost 11% of its value last week. As one of the biggest components behind the gas station price, backtracking keeps consumers going.

DeHaan, however, says this may not last as demand picks up at the end of winter.

Markets are volatile, with prices jumping in some states as they switch to summer blend gasoline. He saidbut much depends on what happens next in the economy as a whole.

“If the outlook for the banking sector improves, we could see gasoline prices rise again, while continued or additional difficulties could increase the likelihood of a wider economic downturn, keeping gasoline prices under control,” he said. “Overall, there are many opportunities.”

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