As Speedway raised prices to $1.999 this morning, oil was busy having a rally of it’s own. The active April contract hit just shy of $50/bbl today, and tomorrow’s Department of Energy report may result in an extended oil rally (meaning higher gasoline prices).
The DOE report tomorrow is setting the stage for $50 oil. Good report, oil could show a good decline. The front month April contract resisted hitting $50 today, but May and June surpassed $50/bbl.
It’s going to be up to the DOE report. I’m almost to the point where I say if the DOE report is bad, oil will begin a longer rally (weeks/months?) and if it’s good, we could go back down to around $43.50 and wait.
Tomorrow either the bulls will be let out or the bears. I have a feeling we’re seeing the beginning of a oil rally that will last into Summer.
Having said all that, wholesale prices for gasoline also rose 5-cents today. Speedway and friends are in a pinch- do they wait and see if the DOE report is good or bad? Or do they raise prices Wednesday to $2.09 and hope the DOE report is good so they won’t have to raise THREE DAYS in a row?
We’ll see. I’m betting on no hike tomorrow, but Thursday it’s looking likely…. everything at this point depends on the 10:30am EDT release of the hyped DOE report.