ATLANTA -- The price of gasoline has stayed persistently high -- despite sharp drops in crude oil prices this month. That led analyst Wes Moss to predict a drop in gasoline prices.
"By forty to sixty cents, if oil prices stay in the $98 (range) per barrel of oil," said Moss, chief investment strategist with Capital Investment Advisors of Sandy Springs.
That expected drop at the pump hasn't happened -- nor is it likely to in the next few days, Moss says. For a source of the short-term pain, Moss says, turn to the flooding of oil refineries.
"Now (refinery) capacity may be coming down because of the floods," said Moss. "That's what's creating the short term spike in gasoline prices."
But Moss says, keep an eye on crude oil prices -- trading around $100 per barrel, down more than ten percent in just the last two weeks.
"It won't be for another couple of weeks that we actually see gas prices start coming down," said Moss. "As long as oil stays under $100 a barrel."
And that, he says, would lower gasoline prices by a half dollar or so per gallon -- around the first of June.