Another few cents nipped off gas prices

Gas prices are declined a cent or two a day, but seen a week at a time, those price decreases are looking mighty good.

by mid-afternoon in Europe, light, sweet crude for January delivery was down $3.42 to $44.56 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Overnight, the contract surged $4.46, or 10 percent, to settle at $47.98., ASSOCIATED PRESS AND INQUIRER STAFF

Published Dec. 12, 2008, 9:55 a.m. ET

Gas prices are declined a cent or two a day, but seen a week at a time, those price decreases are looking mighty good.

A gallon of regular no-lead is average 2 cents less in the five-county Philadelphia region, with the price slipped overnight to $1.80, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic. That price was 12 cents higher a week ago, and $4.16 as of June 20.

In South Jersey, the average was down a cent overnight, to $1.54. That price was 12 cents higher a week ago, and hit a high of $4 on June 15.

The national average stayed the same, at $1.66, but that's down 11 cents from a week ago and down from a high of $4.11 on July 6.

Today, only two states - Alaska and Hawaii - have an average price topping $2 a gallon.

Diesel prices also moved overnight: down 1 cent, to $2.85, in the Philly area; down 2 cents, to $2.52, in South Jersey; and down 1 cent, to $2.58, at the national level.

Meanwhile, oil prices fell below $45 a barrel today in reaction to fresh evidence of the U.S. recession and news that a $14 billion emergency bailout for U.S. automakers had collapsed in the Senate.

The decline wiped out most of the strong gains made in the previous day's session, but traders said expectations of a significant production cut by OPEC would help keep a floor under prices.