Yahoo Finance's Rick Newman joins the Live show to discuss rising gas prices in the U.S. as well as President Biden's reevaluation of a relationship with Saudi Arabia.

Video Transcript

[AUDIO LOGO]

BRIAN SOZZI: All right, gas prices are on the rise again here in the US after OPEC+ slashed its output target by two million barrels a day. Now, President Biden is reevaluating the nation's relationship with Saudi Arabia. Yahoo! Finance Columnist Rick Newman has the latest. Rick, interesting to see how this relationship has evolved and may continue to evolve.

RICK NEWMAN: Yeah, Saudi Arabia not such an ally anymore. Basically, rebuffing Biden in his request to pump more oil.

But when you hear that Biden is reevaluating the relationship with Saudi Arabia, it's hard to figure out what actually might change. And I don't think people should expect much to actually change, at least not anytime soon. Not before the midterm elections.

But people are angry. I mean, just going around, I found that I'm talking with friends and other people, and they're like, what is wrong with OPEC? Why are they siding with Russia, basically, and trying to push up the price of oil, which is gonna just give Russia more energy revenue to fight its war with Ukraine?

I don't think that's exactly what's going on. But, you know, people are pissed off here in the United States. And you're hearing some people in Congress say, we've got to do something about this.

So not entirely clear what we can do. There are some ideas out there. My guess is not much is actually gonna change.

BRIAN SOZZI: Gas prices have come down but they're still high. Is that still top of mind amongst voters as we look to the midterms?

RICK NEWMAN: Heck yeah. I mean, we figured out this year that consumer confidence basically goes up and down based on gas prices. Nothing seems to drive consumer confidence more than gas prices, just because they're so visible.

So where are gas prices right now? We're looking at about $3.92 today. Now, oil prices, which are the main component of gas prices, did go up after OPEC said they were gonna cut production. Remember, that was a long-term production cut. It wasn't like anything changed in today's inventories.

But then oil prices came back down. They did not go quite as high as some people thought. To figure out where gas prices are going, I look at wholesale gasoline prices. Anybody can do this on Yahoo! Finance. The ticker symbol is RBOB, that's wholesale gasoline. And those prices have actually come down during the last few days. So we may see $3.92 come down to, I don't know, $3.85.

I think if you're in the Biden White House and you're thinking about the midterm elections, you want most people to see a price that starts with a $3.00 rather than a $4.00. And I think Biden might get that for the next three weeks.

BRIAN SOZZI: Well, what's that lead gas on for, right?

[LAUGHTER]

BRAD SMITH: Yeah, a dollar.

RICK NEWMAN: I think on the black market.

[LAUGHTER]

BRAD SMITH: Yeah.

BRIAN SOZZI: I might need it at this rate.

RICK NEWMAN: Yeah, I think you're the only guy who might-- that I know who might have a car that takes it.

BRIAN SOZZI: Let's take that [? offline. ?]

RICK NEWMAN: The TransAm.

BRIAN SOZZI: Rick Newman, you're the man. I'll talk to you-- we'll talk to you soon.