by Calculated Risk on 5/16/2011 11:22:00 PM

Just an update from Reuters: Gasoline price falls first time in 8 weeks: Energy Department

Regular unleaded gasoline declined half a penny over the last week to a national price of $3.96 a gallon, which is still up $1.10 from a year ago.

Not much of a decline yet nationally, but GasBuddy.com is showing a 6 cent decline in my area from the peak.

I think high oil and gasoline prices the biggest downside risk to the U.S. economy - and a decline in prices would definitely be helpful.

Bloomberg is showing WTI futures at $96.86 per barrel tonight (down from $114 at the end of April), and Brent at $110.

Earlier:
• NAHB Builder Confidence index unchanged at low level in May
• And this weekend post has generated a lot of feedback: The upward slope of Real House Prices.