Last week, U.S. gasoline prices jumped 3.4%, or $0.12, to more than $3.62 a gallon:
What happened?
As we've explained, fuel is a finished product traded on the international market. Thus, it closely tracks the price of
So what has Brent been up to?
Check it out:
Brent
Brent's up 7% since the end of June.
So why's Brent been going up?
Analysts point to unrest in Egypt, although it looks highly unlikely the Suez canal will be affected by the country's political turmoil.
There have also been production outages in Libya, following protests there.
Also of note: Dan Strumpf at the Wall Street Journal reports there's been a new wave of glitches at US refiners, which has slowed down production and adds to price of finished products like gasoline.
But if you look at the Brent chart again, you can already see prices came down sharply Friday.
So barring any new news, fuel prices should soon come down again too.