"AAA"

According to AAA, the national average Tuesday was $4.33 a gallon.

After months of incremental bumps, a barrel of Alaska North Slope shot up to $125 last week. A day later, he said, the markets reconsidered, and it dropped to $110.

Those happy dogs sitting in a driver’s lap or hanging their heads out the car window may look like the model of canine companionship. But they’re also potential projectiles, poised to rocket through the air if there’s a crash.

Fitch Ratings, one of the big three credit ratings agencies, issued a warning shot today, saying that while it affirmed the United States’ AAA credit rating, it was placing it on “rating watch negative.”