US stock futures higher ahead of jobs report

American drivers, some of whom are hurting financially from mass unemployment, may not be happy to see that prices at the pump are no longer imploding.

The national average for a gallon of gas is now at $1.81, according to AAA. While that’s well below $2.89 a gallon from a year ago, it’s also off the low of $1.77.

During the height of the crisis, more than a dozen US states had at least one gas station with sub-$1-a-gallon gasoline, according to GasBuddy. Now just two stations in the nation are sitting below $1 a gallon, both in Arkansas.

Ultra-low prices have disappeared,” said Patrick DeHaan, oil and refined products analyst at GasBuddy.

These trends, along with record supply cuts by OPEC and Russia, have allowed some cautious optimism to creep back into an oil market that was filled with gloom and doom for much of this year.

We think the bottom of pricing is in. We don’t think we’ll see a return of negative prices over the short term,” said Michael Tran, RBC’s director of global energy strategy.