Comment on the June 26 prediction: Prices rose on June 27 to a record $4.19, so the prediction was CORRECT. Retail prices have slowly slipped since then.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008, 3:30 PM: I’ve been slow to post recently due to general family and holiday business, and that nasty storm last week, combined with mixed signals in the futures market. As the writers on the GasBuddy site point out, there are price hikes here but not there, and the cost to retailers in the area isn’t lining up well with NYMEX or AXXIS. It makes it hard to predict when we will get a hike. I have three estimates of the 0-margin price this afternoon: $3.93 from ‘fncman’, $3.99 based on NYMEX, and about $4.06 based on AXXIS, which has been the least reliable this summer. So, with prices in the $4.08-$4.19 range in Grand Rapids, we have room to drop. The prediction is no price hike the rest of the week, and someone locally is going to offer gas for less than $4 this weekend.
Prices have been stable in Detroit as well. We did have a minor blip before last weekend where a few stations went up, but I can find fuel in the $4.05 range without looking very hard.