- Retail regular gasoline prices rose by 17.1c in the last four weeks to $3.517/Gal. About 57% of the change was due to the price of crude oil, while the remainder was the refinery margin
- Scroll down for a chart of the RBOB-WTI crack spread, a measure of refinery margin. It shows elevated cracks this year
- Total motor gasoline inventories rose by 1.3 MMBbl for the week ending March 22 and are 1% below the five-year average for this time of year
- Money managers raise bullish bets on gasoline to a four-year high (Bloomberg, ZeroHedge)
- Latest data from CFTC showed that money managers have increased their bullish positions in New York gasoline futures to the highest level since March 2020, reaching 9,734 net-long positions amid a 36% price increase since early December
- Transition to summer-grade gasoline, domestic refinery maintenance and unplanned outages, and shrinking global product supplies amid Russian refinery attacks are driving prices higher
- Devin Gladden, a spokesperson for AAA, warned higher pump prices will force the working poor to make "lifestyle changes and be a focus in November's presidential election"
- Additionally, rising pump prices may hinder the Fed's inflation-curbing efforts and delay summer rate cuts
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