mineral exploration project – commodity prices – mining stock- trade and market

Crude oil and gasoline prices are inching up again. Optimism about the economy, new tensions in oil-producing Nigeria and reports that China intends to build up its strategic reserves lifted crude prices to around $82 on Monday, about a $10 increase in the last month.

Prices at the pump are rising, too, with the average national price for a gallon of gasoline jumping 5 cents in the last week, to just above $2.75.

Americans are paying more for gasoline than they did last year as the holidays approached — billions of dollars that could go to books, clothes and Barbie dolls instead being spent at the pump.

Consumers for the first time this year are paying more on average for a gallon of gasoline than they did 12 months ago, according to data released Tuesday.

The rising price of crude oil, which closed Tuesday at $79.55 a barrel, is putting pressure on gasoline prices.

Gasoline prices rose more than 15 cents in the past two weeks, the result of rising crude oil prices, according to a survey published Sunday.

The average national price of a gallon of unleaded gasoline was at $2.6442, the August 7 Lundberg survey found, an increase of 15.83 cents from two weeks ago.