Has gasoline peaked?

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U.S. gasoline pump prices may have peaked for the year as demand slides, job growth slows and crude prices moderate.

Regular gasoline, averaged nationwide, has fallen five straight days to $3.915 a gallon, the longest streak since December, after surging 20 percent to $3.936 on April 4, according to data from AAA, the nation’s biggest motoring club. Americans have purchased 5.3 percent less gasoline so far this year than in 2011, data from credit-card receipts analyzed by MasterCard Inc. showed yesterday.

Deliveries (DOEDMGAS) to wholesalers last week were 5.4 percent below a year earlier, the Energy Department reported today. The department forecast consumption to decline to 8.65 million barrels a day this year, the lowest level in 11 years. The U.S. added the fewest jobs in five months in March, the Labor Department said April 6, limiting prospects for higher demand.

“Gasoline was the best-performing asset in the first quarter, but the sentiment is turning,” said Amrita Sen, a London-based analyst at Barclays Capital. “For the time being, our view is that it has probably peaked.”

Prices reached the highest level of 2011 at $3.985 on May 4, weeks before the U.S. Memorial Day holiday kicked off the traditional start of the summer driving season. The record retail price was $4.114 on July 15, 2008.

Gasoline in the U.S. will peak in May at $4.01 a gallon, the Energy Department said yesterday in its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook.