{"id":422978,"date":"2026-05-03T07:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T07:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/422978\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T07:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T07:58:12","slug":"gas-hits-4-43-surges-61-since-december-as-strait-of-hormuz-uncertainty-drives-fuel-prices-higher-spi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/422978\/","title":{"rendered":"Gas Hits $4.43, Surges 61% Since December As Strait Of Hormuz Uncertainty Drives Fuel Prices Higher &#8211; Spi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"block core-block\">U.S. gas prices surged to $4.43 per gallon, up 61% since December, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.benzinga.com\/markets\/commodities\/26\/05\/52205447\/trump-dodges-war-powers-deadline-oil-enters-higher-for-longer-regime-as-brent-croses-111\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">oil briefly hit $126 a barrel on Thursday<\/a>, its highest level since the Iran war began.<\/p>\n<p class=\"block core-block\">According to The Kobeissi Letter, Americans will spend roughly $90 billion more on gasoline in a year than they would at $3\/gallon.<\/p>\n<p>Iran Escalation Fears Rattle Oil Markets<\/p>\n<p class=\"block core-block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gasprices.aaa.com\/?state=CA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">AAA data shows<\/a> California\u2019s regular <a href=\"https:\/\/www.benzinga.com\/news\/politics\/26\/05\/52224609\/californias-6-gas-is-the-rate-cut-story-dead\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">gas average hit $6.088\/gallon<\/a> as of Saturday, approaching its all-time high of $6.438 set in June 2022, while diesel reached $7.508\/gallon below its peak of $7.747\/gal in April 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"block core-block\">The Federal Reserve this week kept rates unchanged while flagging that \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.benzinga.com\/news\/26\/04\/52144038\/fed-holds-rates-unchanged-traders-brace-for-powells-likely-final-presser\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">inflation is elevated<\/a>,\u201d directly referencing the surge in global energy prices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"block core-block\">RSM Chief Economist Joseph Brusuelas earlier <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/joebrusuelas\/status\/2049854082332987636?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">warned<\/a> that a Fed rate hike, rather than a cut, could come as soon as June, given the supply shock and the likelihood that the war will not be resolved soon.<\/p>\n<p>Travel Industry Also At Risk<\/p>\n<p class=\"block core-block\">GasBuddy&#8217;s Patrick De Haan also warned that if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, &#8220;Americans will start changing their summer travel plans,&#8221; which could <a href=\"https:\/\/www.benzinga.com\/news\/politics\/26\/04\/52143957\/gas-prices-hit-4-23-highest-since-2022-expert-says-americans-will-start-changing-their-summer-travel-plans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">negatively impact airlines, cruise lines and online travel stocks<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"block core-block\">Photo Courtesy: Shutterstock<\/p>\n<p class=\"block core-block\">Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"text-sm my-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.benzinga.com\/apis?utm_source=benzinga.com&amp;utm_campaign=article-bottom\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright\">\u00a9 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p class=\"block core-block\">To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, <a href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.benzinga.com\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. gas prices surged to $4.43 per gallon, up 61% since December, as oil briefly hit $126 a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[199021,3622,199022,38810,118192,14973,8458,3621,3620,42,43,3619,199023,199024,14976,199025,199026,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-422978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-category-commodities","tag-category-economics","tag-category-global","tag-category-government","tag-category-market-summary","tag-category-markets","tag-category-news","tag-category-politics","tag-cms-wordpress","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-pageisbzpro-bz","tag-symbol-bkr","tag-symbol-flyyq","tag-tag-donald-trump","tag-tag-joseph-brusuelas","tag-tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}