Gas prices slip for first time in weeks, may be near top

NEW YORK -- Retail gas prices fell slightly Friday — the first time in more than two weeks that they haven't risen to a record — and analysts say pump prices may be near their peak for the year.

Oil futures, meanwhile, rose sharply after Turkish airstrikes on Kurdish rebel bases in Iraq injected some supply concerns into the market and the Labor Department's employment report gave investors reason to be optimistic about the economy.

The national average price of a gallon of regular gas fell 0.1 cent overnight to $3.622, according to a survey of gas stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. That's the first time since April 14 that retail prices have fallen. Diesel prices fell 0.2 cents to a national average of $4.249 a gallon.

"It could go up just a little bit more," said Fred Rozell, retail pricing director at the Oil Price Information Service, in Wall, N.J., but, "I think it's running out of steam."

Prices could reach $3.70 a gallon, "at the most," Rozell said, but are highly unlikely to rise to $4 on a national basis. Still, motorists in parts of states such as California and Hawaii are paying $4 right now.

The government is due to update its gasoline-price forecast next week. The last one, published last month, foresees a monthly average as high as $3.60 this spring, and cautions: "It is possible that prices at some point will cross the $4-per-gallon threshold."

Soaring gas prices are cutting demand for gasoline, and analysts have long theorized that falling demand will eventually force prices lower. However, gas prices bucked those forecasts for most of the spring and followed oil's sharp gains.

On Friday, light, sweet crude for June delivery rose $3.80 to settle at $116.32 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel bases inside Iraq for three hours overnight, a rebel spokesman said Friday. When conflict breaks out in the Middle East, investors often buy on concerns that supplies will be disrupted.