Fueling Strategy: Don’t fill today!!! Saturday AM wholesale prices will drop 5.5 cents – Be Safe today!

NYMEX Crude $ 49.80 UP $.9000
NY Harbor ULSD $1.5633 UP $.0124
NYMEX Gasoline $1.6477 UP $.0333

NEWS
Crude-oil prices rebounded Friday on the heels of Thursday’s near-5% drop, as investors shook off disappointment that OPEC didn’t take more aggressive measures to cut production.

For the week, prices pared their losses to less than 2% after posting gains for each of the last two weeks. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries on Thursday renewed an agreement with 10 other crude-oil producers to cap output through March 2018, but the production cuts won’t be deepened, as some investors had expected.

July West Texas Intermediate crude added 90 cents, or 1.8%, to settle at $49.80 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Friday, after dropping 4.8% Thursday. It settled about 1.7% lower for the week. July Brent crude climbed 69 cents, or 1.3%, to $52.15—down about 2.7% for the week.

While the market had a “knee-jerk reaction” because it “remains skeptical” about the impact of OPEC’s cuts, “we encourage investors to separate the near-term, noise-driven price gyrations and focus on the improving global fundamental backdrop,” said Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, LLC, who has a forecast for oil to eventually move between $50 and $60 a barrel. Oil prices had risen sharply in the 2½ weeks before the OPEC meeting, as an extension of the current production cuts became increasingly clear. “Oil was up $5 in two weeks and part of that was speculation by some that OPEC would cut production even more,” said James Williams, energy economist at WTRG Economics. “So keeping the current production was bearish relative to that expectation.”

Investors have been concerned because stockpiles of oil remain larger than expected amid signs that U.S. shale producers are increasingly able to push down prices even as OPEC members decide to slash output.

Baker Hughes reported a 19th straight weekly rise in the number of active U.S. oil rigs, offering a peek at the production outlook. The oil-rig count rose by 2 to total 722, though the size of the increase was the smallest so far this year.

Have a great day,

Loren R. Bailey, President
FUEL MANAGER SERVICES INC
“Serving the Trucking Industry Since 1992”