Looking at morning numbers briefly this morning before an interview on WOOD AM1300, I think I might have to announce that I’m expecting a price hike soon to $2.19! A quick look at closing prices on the market from late last week and yesterday:
Thursday close $1.42
Friday close $1.47
Monday close $1.54
As you can see, wholesale prices are up a whopping 12-cents since just Thursday! While I believe Speedway’s price hike Friday to $2.15 was over done to provide more profit for their Saturday/Sunday Speedy Rewards discount, I now believe that they will raise prices again to keep up with wholesale cost.
Another contributing factor is the switchover to Summer blended gasoline which costs more to make. Refiners were required starting Friday (May 1) to only sell Summer blended fuel after that time. Retailers have until June 1 to make sure they have it in their tanks.
At last check, the Chicago market is suffering a huge Chicago Premium for RBOB gasoline (ethanol blended gasoline, which nearly all retailers sell). The Chicago region was paying nearly 18-cents more per gallon than any other region. Chicago is currently trading RBOB Unleaded at a 21-cent PER GALLON premium to NYMEX pricing.
I’m led to believe we’ll see a jump to between $2.15-$2.25. I’ll pick $2.19.
Gasoline demand is starting to rise so don’t think this is a shock to see higher gas prices. At least we’re not paying $3 or $4/gallon!
Patrick
Well, so much for the $2.19 prediction!! I’m just back from a mini-excursion to Fuller/I-196 and back out through Cascade/Ada – ALL stations on my route are at $2.29. YIKES!
They must have seen your prediction and decided to up the Ante.
$2.29 here in Trav City
Greedway (and Marathon) jumped up to $2.29 here in the Detroit area, at every station of theirs that we passed today (from the east side en route to Plymouth/Canton area, and back). I know they tried $2.19 last week, but that fell to $2.05 just a few days later. A couple other stations jumped on the bandwagon but, surprisingly, we topped off at a BP for only $2.09 at 10:00am.
$2.29 in Indy as well. Welcome to May. It’s only going to go up from here.