U.S. retail gas and diesel prices jumped to yet another record Friday, piling on the costs for motorists as well as everyday consumers reliant on trucks, trains and ships to deliver food and other goods to market.Oil prices dipped slightly, however, easing further from a record above $112 a barrel set earlier in the week. Gas prices at the pump edged higher overnight, adding 0.8 cents to 3.365 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. The increase is the latest in a series of records in recent weeks, and leaves drivers paying 56 cents more a gallon now than they did a year ago.

Retail diesel rose by 2.1 cents to $4.066, topping the previous high set a day earlier. The spike in the key transportation fuel is significant because it affects the cost of a wide range of goods — meaning even Americans who don't drive will feel the pinch.



"There's just not enough supply to meet demand ... and that's driving prices higher," Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates in Galena, Ill., said of diesel's surge.

Light, sweet crude for May delivery fell 73 cents to $109.38 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

An unexpected decline in U.S. crude and gasoline inventories drove oil prices to a trading record of $112.21 a barrel on Wednesday amid concerns about inadequate supplies ahead of the Northern Hemisphere summer driving season. Prices fell Thursday.

Ritterbusch attributed Friday's decline to traders looking to lock in strong prices before the weekend. Prices were also weighed down by the U.S. dollar's recovery from an earlier low against the euro and its rise against the pound.

"The main thing I see is just profit-taking after we ran things up to record high," he said. "There's a strong possibility we'll see new record highs again next week."

Comments by Nobuo Tanaka, head of the International Energy Agency, also added "a bearish note," said Vienna's JBC Energy, alluding to his forecasts of a more balanced market amid softening demand.

Crude oil's recent run above $100 a barrel has been largely attributed to the steadily depreciating greenback. A weakening dollar attracts investors to commodities as a hedge against inflation, but when the dollar rises, the effect tends to reverse as oil also becomes more expensive to investors overseas.

More negative U.S. economic data also appeared to have taken steam out of oil's precipitous price rise this week. The Commerce Department reported the first decline in oil imports in a year — a possible sign that high prices and an economic downturn were hurting crude sales.

Still, prices have shown little inclination to fall in response to eroding demand, especially with gasoline supplies shrinking and the Northern Hemisphere summer approaching.

In other Nymex trading Friday, heating oil futures fell 0.7 cents a gallon to $3.1870 while gasoline futures fell by 3.31 cents to $2.7590 a gallon. Natural gas futures slipped by nearly 15 cents to $9.950 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude futures fell 21 cents to fetch $107.99 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

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Associated Press Writer George Jahn in Vienna contributed to this report.

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