The average price for regular gasoline at U.S. pumps fell 5.56 cents a gallon in the past two weeks to $3.7394 a gallon, according to Lundberg Survey Inc.
The survey covers the period ended March 8 and is based on information obtained at about 2,500 filling stations by the Camarillo, Calif.-based company. The average has risen about 48 cents since Dec. 21, 2012, and is about 8 cents below the year-earlier price of $3.8148 a gallon.
Gasoline futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 12.39 cents, or 4 percent, to $3.2035 a gallon in the past two weeks. Futures have climbed 14 percent this year, making gasoline the second-best performer on the Standard & Poor’s GSCI index of 24 commodities after cotton.
The highest price in the lower 48 U.S. states among the markets surveyed was in Los Angeles, where the average was $4.23 a gallon, Lundberg said. The lowest price was in Billings, Mont., where customers paid an average of $3.31 a gallon.
