Comment on the May 3 posting: I wrote, “If anything, we may see another hike this coming week,” but it wasn’t a formal prediction. Good thing, because we got THREE hikes: $1.55, $1.75, then $1.89.
Sunday, May 10, 2020, 11AM: So, what happened last week? Well, let’s go back to April 20, when the price of oil closed at a negative price. Our gas prices depend on how “RBOB” and “CBOB” are traded in Chicago, and since April 20, that has gone up over 60 cents a gallon. It has been the confluence of a number of factors: the oil trading market getting back to normal ($24 a barrel this week), the shift to “summer gas”, and a jump in demand for gasoline as some people went back to work. Last weekend, gas stations were already underwater of what it was costing them to fill their tanks, and that’s why we rose to $1.75 on Tuesday. Then, we saw another jump in Chicago wholesale prices, which led to $1.89.
What’s next? We should be OK for at least a few days this week, but I’m going to throw out a prediction of $1.99 by Thursday. This would be remarkable, given how many states had stations below $1 just a few weeks ago. -EA
I wonder how long it will be until Speedway returns to the old “spike and dribble”? They seem to have abandoned applying any downward price pressure and are even slow to follow others. Hopefully when sales are closer to “normal”
It has been one week since the last price spike to $1.899 in Southwest Ohio. It hasn’t dropped as much as a tenth of a cent at most stations.
Same around most places I’ve seen in Indiana…not dropping at all. They’re getting geared up to take us over $2 bucks a gallon and then up, up and away
couple of spots NW Ohio drifted down to around 1.75 ..so expecting $1.99 this week
Oil is up over 10% so far this morning. I wouldn’t be surprised to see another double spike week