futures markets

Drivers are paying an average of $4 for a gallon of gasoline for the first time. AAA and the Oil Price Information Service say the national average price for a gallon of regular gas rose to $4.005 overnight from $3.988.

But consumers in many parts of the country have already been paying well above that price for some time.

Gas is expected to keep climbing, putting greater pressure on consumers and businesses, because the price of oil is soaring in futures markets.

Light, sweet crude shot up nearly $11 a barrel Friday and approached $140 for the first time.

"We are cooperating closely with police"

A Paris court sent French trader Jerome Kerviel behind bars Friday, while the investigation into billions of euros (dollars) of losses he allegedly caused for bank Societe Generale took a new twist with a second employee taken into custody.

Investigators want to know whether Kerviel acted alone, and if so, how it was that a brokerage employee sent him a message before the scandal broke, saying: 'You have done nothing illegal in terms of the law.'