WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON — Gas cost more this week than in any August on record. The average price for a gallon of regular gas hit $4.10 on Thursday. That is three cents more than last week and about 97 cents more than a year ago. Filling a 15-gallon tank now costs roughly $15 more than it did last summer. The reason is crude oil, which sits near $80 a barrel because ships cannot move safely through the Strait of Hormuz. Walmart said shoppers are making trade-offs and buying less on each trip to the store.
Why it matters: Money your family spends on gas is money it cannot spend on something else.
WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON — The national average price of regular gasoline reached $4.10 a gallon on Thursday, three cents higher than a week earlier and roughly 97 cents above where it stood a year ago, according to AAA. It is the highest price ever recorded on that calendar date, and August 2026 is tracking as the most expensive August in the data. Crude oil near $80 a barrel is the immediate cause, and the cause of that is diminished traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. The consequences surfaced in Walmart's quarterly results the same day. US comparable sales rose 2.6% excluding fuel, well below the 3.8% analysts anticipated and the slowest quarterly increase in six years, while foot traffic growth slowed to 1.5% and spending per trip to 1.1%. Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey attributed the retreat to the pump: "When fuel prices increase and get above $4, perhaps there's a psychological impact to that." Walmart shares fell 9.6% even though profit exceeded estimates, an indication that investors were reading consumer behavior rather than earnings. Walmart is pushing against the trend, having collected roughly $2.9 billion in tariff refunds after the Supreme Court invalidated tariffs imposed under emergency powers, and it directed that money into price reductions on 11,000 items in July. The labor market is quiet rather than healthy. Initial jobless claims fell to 206,000 last week and layoffs remain historically rare, but hiring has nearly stopped: monthly job gains average 61,000 this year against 166,000 in 2023 and 2024, and employers cut a net 23,000 jobs in July.
Background
In February the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize tariffs, invalidating those duties and obligating the government to refund roughly $166 billion to importers. About $100 billion had been refunded by early August. The administration replaced the struck-down duties with a surcharge imposed under a different trade statute.
Why it matters: An economy where almost nobody is fired but almost nobody is hired looks stable in the unemployment rate and feels dismal to anyone trying to land a first job.
What to watch: The August jobs report in early September, the last major labor reading before the Federal Reserve's September 16 decision. July inflation ran at 3.4%, still above the Fed's 2% target.