Comment on the March 15 prediction: It is as if they read the prediction and said, “WRONG, Ed”. An hour after I posted it, I was driving through Lowell and saw that Big M had posted a new price of $3.29. That was surprising, to say the least, but given past failures of Big M to start a region-wide hike, I didn’t worry about it. The rest of the region raised prices to $3.29 on Tuesday the 18th.
Sunday, March 23, 2025, 2 PM: So, what happened last week? Switching over to the “summer gas” blend added about 12 cents per gallon to the wholesale price last Monday, and the retailers passed that along to drivers. You could tell this was legit because Costco also raised their price, although it took a few days. If there is good news, there are prices of $3.07 – $3.09 scattered about, either because those stations didn’t follow the leaders last Tuesday or we have some good ol’ Gas Game competition going on.
What’s next? There are no obvious signs in the wholesale market of a further hike. I will be keeping an eye on whether the gasoline markets start moving in anticipation of the tariff “Liberation Day” of April 2. -EA