Gas prices set record for highest number of days above $4 a gallon in a calendar year
A customer purchases gas at a station on Sept. 15, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The national average gas price has topped $4 a gallon for a total of 158 days in 2026, setting a record for the largest number of days ever recorded above $4 in a calendar year, GasBuddy petroleum analyst Patrick De Haan said in a post on X on Wednesday.
The Iran war caused gasoline prices to surge after fighting in the Strait of Hormuz prompted a historic oil supply shock.
An oil shortage continues to bedevil crude sellers, who typically pass along higher costs to retailers and, in turn, drivers at the pump. Global oil prices register above $106 a barrel, marking a 50% jump from their pre-war level.
The record-setting gasoline price woes arrive as affordability stands as a top concern for voters ahead of early November’s midterm elections.
An inflation report issued by the federal government on Wednesday showed gas prices jumped more than 9% in September from August, accounting for more than half of the overall price increase last month. Overall inflation clocked in at a 4-month high in September, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said.
The national average gas price stands at $4.33, AAA said. Prior to the war, the average price stood below $3 a gallon.
The Middle East conflict drove up fuel prices and catapulted inflation to a three-year high in May, but inflation eased slightly over the summer after a preliminary peace agreement established an on-again, off-again pause in fighting.
The tentative accord between the U.S. and Iran expired in August, however, giving way to continued attacks on oil infrastructure and ships in the region.
Oil exports from the Gulf have improved in recent weeks, but heightened shipping costs and persistent risks have kept gas prices highly elevated.
Diesel prices, which feed into supply costs for groceries and just about every other product bought in stores, stand at $6.29 a gallon, according to AAA. That figure amounts to an increase of about 66% since the outbreak of the Iran war in February.
In September, consumer sentiment dropped close to the lowest level ever recorded in the 74-year history of the University of Michigan’s monthly survey.
Nvidia’s logo is displayed at their headquarters on Aug. 26, 2026, in Santa Clara, California. (Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Nvidia surpassed Wall Street expectations for revenue over a recent three-month period, the company said on Wednesday, demonstrating strong performance as a data center boom drives demand for the company’s advanced artificial intelligence chips.
The California-based company recorded $96.2 billion in sales over three months ending in July, which beat a Bloomberg forecast of $92 billion. The jump in revenue marked 106% growth compared to the same quarter a year earlier.
In recent years, Nvidia has defied skeptics with blockbuster revenue quarter after quarter, despite political backlash against data centers and looming concern about a financial bubble in AI.
Rip-roaring growth transformed Nvidia from an ascendant AI player into the world’s most valuable company.
The results hold implications well beyond Nvidia. Many analysts view the company as a bellwether for the stock market and the overall economy, which have both come to rely in part on massive spending on AI.
As big-tech names spend hundreds of billions on chips and data centers necessary for the energy-intensive technology, however, the financial benefits remain uncertain.
The earnings reported by Nvidia offered a gauge of demand for a key building block of AI, showing whether appetite for the technology remains at a fever pitch.
Before the earnings report, Karan Girotra, a professor of operations, technology, and innovation at Cornell Tech, said investors would watch whether the company has retained its dominance in chip manufacturing.
As opposed to the highly competitive markets for AI models and enterprise products, the chip sector has given way to a clear winner.
Nvidia “does not face a serious challenger at its layer of the stack and is probably the best chance for public market investors to profit from the AI boom,” Girotra said.
Fears of an AI bubble persisted ahead of Nvidia’s previous earnings report, but the company rebuked naysayers. Nvidia recorded $81.6 billion in sales over three months ending in April, which beat analyst expectations of $79.2 billion. The jump in revenue marked 85% growth compared to the same quarter a year earlier.
Despite Nvidia’s continued expansion, investors have proven jittery in recent months. Shares have climbed 13% so far this year after soaring nearly 39% in 2025.
The company boasts a market cap of $5.1 trillion, making it roughly equivalent to the GDP of Japan or Germany. Nvidia expanded at a breakneck pace after an AI craze set off by the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022, soaring nearly 700% over the ensuing two years.
Stock photo of tax documents and calculator. (Tfilm/STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images)
Credit card debt held by Americans stands near an all-time high, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, just as a rise in the Fed’s benchmark interest rate threatens to drive up borrowing costs.
The spending crunch may push some debt holders to tap their 401(k) accounts as a means of paying down what they owe and resetting their finances. But experts who spoke to ABC News cautioned against the move, saying any immediate benefits are typically outweighed by taxes, penalties and years of lost investment returns.
Though some budget-busting emergencies could warrant reaching into a 401(k), they said, the advantages and drawbacks differ, depending on circumstances and execution.
“It’s definitely a tempting option, particularly when credit card debt feels overwhelming and you’ve got this balance of cash sitting in another spot. But the costs of taking out retirement funds to pay down debt are very high,” Timi Joy Jorgensen, a professor and director of financial education and wellbeing at the American College of Financial Services, told ABC News.
Total U.S. credit card debt registered at $1.26 trillion in the second quarter of this year, marking an increase of $21 billion from the previous three-month period, a recent New York Federal Reserve study found, also noting it’s the second-highest debt load on record.
Credit card interest rates, meanwhile, have jumped significantly in recent years. In the second quarter of 2026, the average interest rate on all credit card accounts with a commercial bank stood at 20.94%, up from 15.13% at the same time in 2022, Federal Reserve data shows.
Many borrowers who find themselves squeezed between surging prices and heightened borrowing costs may turn to their 401(k) accounts to escape a cycle of high monthly payments and mounting interest. The prospect of short-term relief, however, could carry life-altering financial damage over the long term, some experts said.
People who withdraw directly from their 401(k) accounts usually incur a 10% early distribution tax if they are under age 59½, in addition to a standard income tax paid on the funds. Depending on an individual’s tax bracket, those payments can result in a combined 401(k) deduction of about 30% or more, Jorgensen said.
“If you want to pay down $20,000 in credit card debt, you need to take out almost $30,000 from your 401(k). It’s pretty expensive as a repayment plan,” Jorgensen added.
To be sure, borrowers can sometimes earn an exemption from the early distribution tax. Some 401(k) plans offer qualified hardship withdrawal, allowing individuals to access their funds under particularly dire financial circumstances. The Internal Revenue Service also allows exemptions from the early distribution tax under certain conditions, including disability, home purchase and terminal illness.
Yet even after taxes, the largest downside of early withdrawal from a 401(k) may still remain. The immediate amount paid to access the funds could pale in comparison to the lost income suffered as a result of years of lost investment returns on the withdrawn funds.
A $20,000 withdrawal, for example, may eliminate the opportunity to earn three or four times as much over the ensuing years. If invested at an annual rate of 7% return, $20,000 would grow to more than $75,000 in two decades, according to Jorgensen.
“You’re taking an asset that’s growing in order to pay down an asset that’s already in the past,” Jorgensen said.
Instead of a direct withdrawal of the funds, 401(k) account holders could take a different approach: a loan.
Under this strategy, a person borrows a set amount from his or her 401(k) account and slowly replenishes the account over time through payments deducted automatically from pay stubs. This option allows a person to avoid the taxes associated with a direct 401(k) withdrawal while accessing funds at an interest rate lower than he or she may otherwise find in a consumer loan, some experts said.
“There are times when the loan makes sense if you’re able to pay it back and your cash flow is keeping up,” Kiersten Saunders, a personal finance author and co-author of “Cashing Out: Win the Wealth Game by Walking Away.”
The main downside of a 401(k) loan is the risk a borrower may lose his or her job before the loan is repaid. Under those circumstances, the full loan amount is typically due by the next tax deadline.
If a person is in truly dire financial straits, he or she may benefit from turning to bankruptcy rather than a 401(k) withdrawal, some experts said. Since federal law shields 401(k) accounts from bankruptcy, the retirement funds may sustain hope for one’s financial future, even if present-day difficulties appear insurmountable, they added.
“The first thing I would do is put that retirement funding and savings out of my mind, because the courts will treat it that way,” Jorgensen said. “If the court isn’t going to touch it, then I wouldn’t touch it.”
