NEW YORK — Gas prices hit $3.60 a gallon and oil futures rose to their own new record near $120 a barrel on Monday as labor actions overseas threatened crude supplies. Oil prices later retreated to alternate between gains and losses as the dollar stabilized against foreign currencies. At the pump, the national average price Americans pay to gas up rose 0.4 cent overnight to a record $3.603 a gallon, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. While prices are 66 cents higher than a year ago, their rate of increase has slowed some since last week, when prices jumped more than 2 cents a day several times. That could suggest that a price peak is near, analysts said. ‘I’ve got to think we’re close to the end on increases,’ said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. However, Lynch thinks prices could rise another 10 cents to 15 cents before they reach that peak and begin falling. Gas prices are rising in part because refiners are making the seasonal switch-over from making winter-grade gasoline to the more expensive, but less polluting, […]

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