-- Year-on-year demand down for 43rd straight week -- Four-week demand hasn't topped year-ago since March 2011 -- Retail gasoline price down 7 cents in week; down 3.9% vs year ago By David Bird NEW YORK--U.S. gasoline demand rose 0.1% from a week earlier to an average of 9.008 million barrels a day in the week ended June 22, according to a SpendingPulse report released Tuesday by MasterCard Advisors LLC, a division of MasterCard Inc.(MA). Demand in the latest week was down 3.5%, or 322,000 barrels a day from a year earlier. Gasoline use has lagged the year-ago level for 43 straight weeks. Four-week demand fell 3.2%, or 275,000 barrels a day, from a year ago, to 8.997 million barrels a day, the lowest since May 18. Four-week gasoline use hasn't topped the year-ago level since March 18, 2011. Gasoline prices dropped 7 cents in the week to $3.48 a gallon, the lowest level since Feb. 3. Prices have dropped 46 cents in the last 11 weeks, after having gained 71 cents a gallon in prior 15 weeks, to peak at $3.94 a gallon on April 6. Prices are 3.9% below a year ago. John Gamel, SpendingPulse gasoline analyst, said year-to-date gasoline demand is 4.7% below the year-earlier period. The Fourth of July holiday will fall on Wednesday this year, compared with Monday in 2011 "which enabled weekend holiday travel," he said, adding the difference may make year-on-year demand comparisons a little tougher. SpendingPulse is a macroeconomic indicator that reports on national retail sales and is based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments network, coupled with estimates for all other payment forms, including cash and check. SpendingPulse from MasterCard doesn't represent MasterCard financial performance. The Department of Energy is scheduled to release its weekly petroleum data, including gasoline demand, at 10:30 a.m. EDT Wednesday. The data, put out by the DOE's Energy Information Administration statistics and analysis unit, doesn't count how many gallons are sold. Instead, it offers a "product supplied," or implied demand figure, in its weekly report. Product supplied represents the total volume of gasoline that has moved on from refineries, pipelines, blending plants and terminals on its way to supplying retail stations. Write to David Bird at david.bird@dowjones.com
