STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Now, we mentioned gas prices in the U.S. are higher than they were before the war started. NPR's Tovia Smith reports.
TOVIA SMITH, BYLINE: At gas stations around Boston, prices at the pumps jumped some 40 cents in four days.
KATE MEYER: It's just shocking every day seeing the prices. It feels like it's just going to keep going up and up and up.
SMITH: Kate Meyer (ph), a social worker in training, says she's OK for now. But she's already playing out worst-case scenarios if gas prices continue to climb. She's even considering pausing grad school and going back to work.
MEYER: I think I probably have to if we want to, you know, be able to support our child getting ready for college and stay on track with kind of those longer-term goals.
SMITH: Since Iran's threats stopped travel through the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world's oil usually ships, average gas prices jumped to $3.31 in Massachusetts and higher than $5 in California. Gas prices are shifting rapidly, as are crude oil prices, which whipsawed yesterday from nearly $120 a barrel to around $90. Jeff Lenard is with the National Association of Convenience Stores, which sell 80% of gas in the U.S. He says the volatility means gas prices can vary widely.
JEFF LENARD: Two stores that are virtually next to each other could have entirely different prices because one called in for their next shipment an hour or two before the other one and that absolutely changed their wholesale price.
SMITH: Some of Monday's oil price slide followed President Trump's comments that the war is, quote, "very far ahead of schedule." He also said earlier in a post on social media that a short-term hike in oil prices is a, quote, "very small price to pay for USA and world safety and peace." Farzaneh Zaker (ph), an Iranian in Massachusetts, agrees.
FARZANEH ZAKER: I know we are not happy about the gas prices. But eventually there's going to be a bigger price. Like, if this regime stay, nowhere is safe. We know what they're capable of.
SMITH: Still, U.S. economic fears persist. Rising gas prices impact the broader economy. Spending more on gas often means spending less on other goods and travel, which also become more expensive as transportation costs rise. And all that adds up to greater chances of inflation.
Tovia Smith, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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