mixed. europe nearly mixed. wall street leaning lower after all three major averages rose thursday on track for another winning week on wall street. jobless claims fell slightly this week, sign of a str strengthening labor market. housing market is cooling but still above 5% for a 30 year fixed. gas $3.92 overnight and diesel prices slid below $5 for the first time since march. higher interest rates are cooling the housing market. home sales down for the sixth month in a row. but home prices remain near record highs. in july the median home price was nearly $404,000, that is up nearly 11% from a year ago. but off the record high reached last month. rapidly rising interest rates are adding hundreds of dollars to monthly mortgage payments, that has pushed many potential buyers to the sidelines an cooled the once red hot housing
those prices, and you do have to keep in mind that california prices are higher than any other state in the nation, but the average here is already above $5. the national average at the moment $3.92 and experts believe we can get to that $4 average very soon. of course, in part, because russia is a major producer of oil and ukraine, a key energy transit hub. since russia s invasion of ukraine we ve seen prices go up by 37 cents. in the last two days an increase of 19 cents and that makes a huge difference for a lot of people especially people who rely on gas are for their jobs, say ride share drivers, for example. i talked to one man, benjamin valdes who works three days a week and is greatly impacted by these prices. here s what he said. if i m driving 200 miles i m spending $50 on gas and i m
what s being done about them? well, alisyn and victor, it s a weird time for the economy, because in many ways, this is a strong recovery, but people don t really feel good right now. and part of that is about covid fatigue, but it s also about the high cost of living. 7.5% inflation in january. highest we ve seen in nearly 40 years. but we got to put context around that, because inflation was actually a lot worse 40 years ago. january 1981, consumer prices were up nearly 12%. 1980, it was almost 14%. so, we re getting closer to that, but we re still well below those inflation levels. we also have to look at borrowing costs because they started to go up as the federal reserve has snald a plan to fight inflation by raising interest rates. today, we learned mortgage rates hit 3.92%, highest since summer of 2019, but if you zoom out, that s actually really cheap. i mean, when my parents bought their first home in 1982, they would have killed for 4% interest rate. back then, the average
sticker shock at the pump is one of the first consequences americans are seeing from this conflict in ukraine. cnn :in los angeles, gas prices are averaging more than $5 a gallon. camilla, what are you learning and what are people saying? reporter: it is unbelievable here in california, fred. but nationally, we re waking up today with an average of $3.92. so we re just cents away from that $4 a gallon as the national average. so experts are saying we can get there just in the next couple days. as you mentioned, the average in california is $5.18. there are places it s worse like in los angeles at this gas station.
yes. so, why hasn t the president moved to make this happen. white house press secretary jen psaki told john berman on cnn s new day the following. what he does not want to do is topple the global markets or the global marketplace or impact the american people more with higher energy and gas prices. but the prices are already surging. according to aaa the national average for a gallon of gas $3.92. that s up 37 cents since the invasion. and the price could soon match or surpass the tloord was set in 2008 during the financial crisis, that was $4.11. in los angeles, it s been spotted as high as $6.65. if the u.s. does stop importing oil from russia that supply deficit must be made up somewhere. and republicans and democrats have different opinions about that. democratic senator ed markey s bill to cut off russian oil