Watch out for these 3 economic indicators

From now until election day, it's all about gas prices, the stock market and the jobless rate. Economists may differ on how those indicators reflect the overall economy, but they're the three measurements that folks use to determine how the economy is going - a right track/wrong track snapshot of confidence or lack thereof. So far, President Obama is holding his own with the stock market (the Dow is up 4 percent in 2012), and the jobless rate (from 9.1 percent in September to 8.5 percent in December). Gas prices are another thing: An average gallon of regular in the L.A. area is $3.794, according to the government survey, up two cents from the previous week and unusually high for this time of year. Come April, average prices could easily top $4; by late summer, according to some analysts, $5 isn't out of the question in California. From the LAT:

Relief from the record prices may be a long way off. U.S. refineries have begun the new year with a new record for fuel sales overseas, according to the U.S. Energy Department. Exports of refined fuels so far in 2012 are running at about 2,921,000 barrels a day. That's an increase of more than 30% over last January and a jump of more than 50% since 2010. U.S. refineries, unable to make much of a profit in the U.S. because of low demand, have found more lucrative deals overseas. They have also been mothballing domestic refineries, enough so that the Energy Department is warning that gasoline supplies in the U.S. may be squeezed further this spring as demand increases.

Very little of this, it should be noted, has anything to do with the administration's energy policy - good, bad or indifferent. It's mostly just the vicissitudes of the marketplace. No matter - politically, it's a potential disaster for Obama, especially if stock prices start falling and unemployment rates start rising.