The weekly Department of Energy/Energy Information Administration average retail diesel price released Monday, the basis for most fuel surcharges, rose 1.1 cents to $2.383 per gallon.
Here’s a scorecard of some oil price moves in recent days.
— The DOE/EIA price from a week earlier, $2.382 per gallon, was the lowest DOE/EIA price since August 2016.
— The ultra low sulfur diesel price on the CME commodity exchange between Oct. 30 and Nov. 5, which would have been the primary building blocks for getting to the retail prices surveyed by EIA on Mondays, rose 6.13 cents, to $1.1426 a gallon, up from $1.0813 a gallon.
— But the overall surge in all asset classes Monday, when equities soared, took ULSD up as well, rising 7.41 cents per gallon on that day to $1.2167 per gallon.
— Wholesale diesel rack prices, which will reflect movements in physical markets on top of what occured in the ULSD price on CME, were sharply higher last week, according to data in SONAR. The ULSDR.HOU price in Houston, a key benchmark, climbed to $1.276 a gallon from $1.172 in just three days, between Nov. 2 and Nov. 5. It fell back to $1.257 on Monday. The price in northern New Jersey made a similar move, climbing to $1.201 Nov. 9 from $1.143 Nov. 2. Those prices will react quickly to the sharp jump Monday in CME prices.
— A key factor in those moves: declines in inventories for distillate and diesel reported by the EIA in its weekly statistical report. ULSD inventories in the U.S. are now the lowest they’ve been since mid-May.
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