by Calculated Risk on 5/22/2011 07:00:00 PM

According to an AP report, the Lundberg Survey shows gasoline prices have fallen 9 cents per gallon over the last 2 weeks.

GasBuddy.com is showing a 16 cent per gallon decline in my area from the recent peak, and a decline of about 13 cents nationally. If WTI oil futures stay under $100 per barrel, I expect prices to fall 30 cents or more from the peak over the next few weeks.

It might be too early to see an increase in the Reuter's/University of Michigan's Consumer sentiment survey due to falling gasoline prices. Right now analysts are expecting a slight increase for May to 72.5 from the preliminary reading of 72.4. But if this trend of falling prices continues, I'd expect some improvement in June. (Note: Usually the two main drivers of sentiment are the unemployment rate and gasoline prices).

Orange County Historical Gas Price Charts Provided by GasBuddy.com

Note: GasBuddy code has a bug and the size of chart increases if you change the location or time period. Sorry.