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if Bush was into the solar energy business prior to becoming president, would you have been the starter of this thread?
hmm
i wonder..
getting across town with via= 2 hrs..
getting across town w/feet= over a day
better, but not necessarily good.
if Bush was into the solar energy business prior to becoming president, would you have been the starter of this thread?
hmm
i wonder..
I don't get it.
I'm not bashing Bush with this post.
I'm just horrified at the skyrocketing gas prices.
I don't think Bush has anything to do with the gas prices doing what they have over the past year. But he certainly isn't planning for the long term future.
you and elpimpo should change screen names
i work at a gas station. gas is whats called a grudge good. people need it but they dont want to pay the ridiculous prices for it. but hey i remember when $5 (usa$2.50) used to get you a big mac combo
2.29 at the Exxon on Culebra & Mcmullen according to sanantoniogasprices.com
Military Intelligence.
It never fails to amaze.
Were gas prices higher than this in 1979-80?
I remember my grandpa telling me that gas was going to be $4/gallon back then.
Complain if you must, but SA still has one of the cheapest gas prices in the country
I was living in Hawaii then and gas was close to $2 a gallon.
Yeah come out here to Norther California and pay 275 and 3.09 for diesel for christ sakes.
when it gets to 3.10 or so it will be a record...inflation adjusted...
its around $2.80 up here.
i wonder what gas is in europe now... in 2002 it was like 4 bucks a gallon.. now? hmm
after reading all of this and news articles, i am scared to see what the gas prices are at my local gas station (in la).
luckily i live .8 mile from work. i can go home for lunch and still only drive 16 miles per work week. i think the traffic bothers me enough that i dont drive much more than that out of work. so in a way the ridiculous traffic is beneficial. never thought i would say that.
The record adjusted for inflation is 3.04 cents. Now, I know they have surpassed that in places in California, so I don't know if the 3.04 figure is based on a national average or a single occurence, but either way we're pretty damn close right now.
some sites have it at 3.15, some at 3.08.. i guess it depends on the economist
I think it would suck more if you paid by the Liter not the Gallon.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. struggled in the second quarter and muted its earnings outlook on Tuesday, again blaming higher gasoline prices for curbing the spending plans of its low-income shoppers. In contrast, shoppers at moderate-price department store retailer J.C. Penney Co. Inc. and at upscale Nordstrom Inc. focused on fashion rather than fuel, resulting in strong results and an upbeat outlook.
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Meanwhile, teen retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co. posted big profit gains in the second quarter, though results missed analysts' forecasts. The company raised its outlook for the year.
The looming concerns over oil prices lowered the stock prices of many retailers.
Shares of Wal-Mart fell $1.53, or 3.12 percent, to close at $47.57 on the New York Stock Exchange, but gained 13 cents in after-hours hours trading. Shares of J.C. Penney Co. Inc. fell $2.16, or 4.2 percent, to close at $49.74.
Nordstrom saw its stock fall $1.48, or 4.54 percent, to close at $31.12, but its upbeat results, announced after regular trading, helped the stock rise $1.33, or 4.3 percent, to $32.45 in after-hours trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Abercrombie & Fitch, which also reported late Tuesday, saw its shares fell $2.32, or 3.7 percent, to $61.23, and drop another $5.25, or 8.6 percent after regular trading.
Wal-Mart posted a 5.8 percent gain in second-quarter profits, beating Wall Street projections, but the results marked the smallest percentage gain in four years. The world's largest retailer's revenues fell short of projections. Penney recorded a sharp increase in profits, boosted by strong sales of merchandise across all divisions, and said that annual profits would surpass Wall Street expectations.
Nordstrom had a 39 percent increase in profits, beating analysts' estimates. The company upgraded its profit for the year.
Abercrombie & Fitch enjoyed a 35 percent increase in second-quarter profits from a year ago, helped by strong sales of denim and knit fashions.
The disappointing results from Wal-Mart offer further evidence that the discounter can't rely on the lowest prices to fuel sales and profit growth as rivals like Target Corp. and Penney, both of which appeal to a higher-income shopper, keep sharpening their merchandising assortment. While Wal-Mart began to expand into trendier apparel and home fashions this year to make itself less vulnerable to the economy's jitters, the question is whether it can lure shoppers fast enough to turn business around.
"They have to keep up because the compe ion is offering more interesting merchandise," said Philip M. Zahn, retail analyst at Fitch Ratings.
For the three months ended July 31, Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart earned $2.8 billion, or 67 cents per share, up from $2.65 billion, or 62 cents per share, in the year-ago period. That was the smallest quarterly gain since the retailer's second quarter of 2001 when it recorded a 2.8 percent increase, according to Thomson Financial.
Wal-Mart reported sales of $76.8 billion for the three months ending July 31, up 10.2 percent.
Analysts expected a profit of 65 cents per share and revenue of $77.46 billion.
Wal-Mart Chief Executive Lee Scott blamed high gasoline prices for the company' shortfall. Scott said a cool and wet spring got the quarter off to a slow start but summer came in stronger than forecast.
Scott said in a call with investors Tuesday that inflation appears to be under control, except when considering fuel prices.
"I worry about the effect of higher oil prices," he said. Scott said higher prices at the pump could erase economic gains for a portion of Wal-Mart's customer base.
Scott said the company has kept its low-price items but has improved its mix of merchandise in mid- and premium-price categories.
Sales in stores open at least a year, known as same-store sales, rose 3.5 percent for the quarter at U.S. stores -- 3.6 percent in the Wal-Mart division and 2.9 percent at Sam's Club warehouse stores. The company projected same-store sales gains in the third quarter of between 3 percent and 5 percent.
Chief Financial Officer Tom Schoewe said utility expenses rose by $100 million in the quarter and fuel costs were up $30 million. Also, rising interest rates will affect the company's borrowing costs. Wal-Mart is continuing an aggressive expansion and plans to increase its square footage by 8 percent this fiscal year.
Wal-Mart projected it would earn between 55 cents and 59 cents per share for its third quarter and between $2.63 and $2.70 for the year. Analysts are expecting a profit of 60 cents per share for the third quarter and $2.66 for the year.
For the three months ended July 30, Penney earned $131 million, or 50 cents per share, compared with last year's net income of $1 million, which amounted to a per-share loss of 2 cents.
On a continuing operations basis, Penney's earnings were $122 million, or 46 cents per share, versus $68 million, or 22 cents per share, a year earlier.
The company's earnings from ongoing business topped the average estimate for income of 40 cents per share from analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.
Net sales totaled $3.98 billion, a gain of 5 percent from $3.78 billion a year earlier but just missing analysts' consensus target of about $4 billion.
Same-store sales grew 4.2 percent last quarter, after increasing 6.9 percent a year ago. Meanwhile, catalog and Internet sales jumped 7.1 percent, compared with a 1.6 percent decline last year.
The Plano, Texas-based retailer forecast third-quarter profit of 82 cents per share, and fourth-quarter income of $1.52 per share. Those figures would result in yearly profit of $3.35 per share, well ahead of the company's earlier estimate for income between $2.96 and $3.08 per share.
Analysts currently predict third-quarter profit of 82 cents per share on $4.62 billion in sales, and fourth-quarter income of $1.50 per share and $6.32 billion in sales. For the year, earnings are projected to be $3.29 per share on $19.15 billion in sales.
Chairman and Chief Executive Myron Ullman said customers have absorbed higher gasoline prices "but we can't expect that to continue" if energy prices keep rising.
Associated Press Writers Chuck Bartels in Little Rock, Ark. and Dave Koenig in Dallas, contributed to the report.
He isn't kidding. I just got some new tires for my jeep, along with an oil/filter change, and there is a significant difference in the MPG i am getting now.
If people don't know that, you're either a chick (sorry ladies) or a re . They even tell you this in all of these advanced auto commercials.
Don't complain about $2.45 for Gallon.
1 Gallon = 3.78 Litres which is the system we use in Australia.
We are paying $1.25 AUS per litre, which works out to .95c US for 1 litre.
So essentially in Australia we are paying $3.51US for a gallon.
Now, a few days a week I do courier work. It is ed.
$76 to fill up today
*cries*
I Need Gas This Morning & I'm Scared... My Big Ass Suburban Is Killing Me Slowly
At least there aren't lines like in '80...I was driving a 450hp corvette back then and prices not only went through the roof, you couldn't even find it at times...
Gas stations would get their allocation from the distributor, sell out by noon, and lock the door and go fishing till they got their next truckload two days later. You could tell that a station had gas because the lines would be out the station and down the street...
I can remember sitting in lines with over a hundred cars in them watching my gas gauge wondering if I was gonna run out before I finally got to the pump...
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