By coinnews 
00:00 Speaker A
Gasoline prices are on the rise, touching their highest levels since September and Yahoo Finance Yahoo Finance’s Nez Fray joins us now with the very latest. Nez.
00:15 Nez Fray
Yeah, Josh, gasoline prices are now at a national average of $3.24. That’s higher than last month, but lower than last year. So we have seen a pickup when it comes to gasoline prices over the last few weeks. Why? Well, part of this has to do with seasonal trends, a more expensive blend that’s kicking in. You also have maintenance of some refineries. That’s also having an impact on those prices. You had the EIA data this morning showing an overall build of oil in the US, that weekly data that comes out, but yet you had gasoline stockpiles that were down. So that is signaling a pickup in demand. Remember that we are going into that spring driving season, people are taking their spring breaks, they’re driving more. And then you have also seen a pickup in oil prices. So you are now looking at WTI that’s up above $71 per barrel. You’re looking at Brent that’s up above $75 per barrel. And why? Well, part of this has to do with those secondary tariffs that Trump has announced against oil imports from Venezuela. That is countries that buy oil from Venezuela would receive a tariff on products that are imported into the US from those countries. He also threatened the same thing for Russian oil. You also have tensions with Iran. So all of that has really been driving oil prices higher over the last couple of weeks. So you are seeing this uptick in oil prices. Now, the big question is what will happen after the reciprocal tariffs are announced today. So what analysts are saying and the bottom line is if those tariffs are very severe, then you may see oil going down on the expectation that you have a full-blown trade war and that demand will be going down. If the tariffs are not that severe, you may see oil going up. And also if there are tariffs on oil imports into the US, because remember that the US does import some heavy crude oil, then you would see a rise in things like gasoline.