CSP, May 28, 2026: Pump price up 4 cents to $4.59 Retailers still coping with ultra-low gasoline margin: Lundberg

CSP, Apr. 27, 2026: Gasoline price down 8 cents Retailers get partial margin recovery—for now: Lundberg

CSP, Apr. 13, 2026: Pump price up another 16 cents Retailer gasoline margin crushed by wholesale price hikes: Lundberg

CSP, Mar. 31, 2026: U.S. gasoline prices rise another 46 cents April may see another $1 or more in price hikes if oil prices rise further: Lundberg

CSP, March 16, 2026: U.S. gasoline prices surge 57.8 cents amid Middle East oil crisis, with more hikes expected National average hits $3.599 per gallon as supply disruptions and crude oil price spikes drive potential increases of up to 50 cents

CSP, Feb. 23, 2026: U.S. gasoline price rises another 6 cents March may see dramatic price surge: Lundberg

CSP, May 28, 2026: Pump price up 4 cents to $4.59 Retailers still coping with ultra-low gasoline margin: Lundberg May 28, 2026 CSPDailyNews.com Article: The U.S. average retail price of regular grade gasoline moved 3.8 cents per gallon higher in the past two weeks.The new average is $4.587 per gallon. It's been an extreme $1.57 per gallon pump price increase since before the start of the Iran war. Compared to one year ago, the price is up by $1.33. In this period, oil prices were up and down like a yo-yo, climbing by more than $13 per barrel between May 8 and May 18 to $108.66. The following five days saw West Texas Intermediate recede by close to $12 per barrel, closing at $96.60 on May 22. For months, oil and wholesale fuel prices have fluctuated due to uncertain Iran peace negotiations, ongoing hostile events and efforts to bypass the blocked Strait of Hormuz. As noted here on May 10, extreme wholesale gasoline price increases averaging nearly 58 cents per gallon decimated retail margin. Margin dropped from 31.4 cents to just 15 cents per gallon. Now with a modest drop at wholesale, margin has eked out a partial recovery. The Lundberg weighted wholesale price of regular grade is $3.761 per gallon, down 2.3 cents from two weeks ago, and retail margin is up 7.6 cents. But the current retail margin of under 23 cents per gallon remains in the acute danger zone, too low to cover existing and rising costs of doing retail fuel business. The pressure on retailers to further regain margin translates urgently to street price hikes, absent an important drop in wholesale buying prices, which only a convincing Iran peace agreement could do. There are big drops happening now in wholesale markets, branded racks leading the way. But inventories are low, seasonal demand is hitting its stride and there is no guarantee that oil prices will not boomerang back up momentarily. Nationally, branded rack fell 22.27 cents per gallon in the past two weeks to $3.4462. In super-high price territory of Petroleum Administration for Defense District 5, branded rack fell even more, declining 28.47 cents per gallon in the past two weeks to $4.0523. Also in the West, in local petro-politics, a starkly sad moment in fuel price mania as California's Gov. Gavin Newsom is attempting to rally his consumer constituents to boycott stations of Chevron that his expert bureaucrats pinpoint to blame for the state's high prices. But meanwhile on the bigger fuel market stage, there are positive efforts: Refiners have upped the average capacity utilization rate at a time of low stocks, while the jobbers and dealers making up the rest of the downstream continue to labor under margin stress. Trilby Lundberg is publisher of the Lundberg Survey of U.S. fuel markets. Lundberg Survey Inc. is based in Camarillo, California. Click here for previous Lundberg Survey reports in CSP Daily News.

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