Fueling Strategy: Please top all tanks tonight, Christmas AM wholesale prices will jump UP 3 cents – Merry Christmas, Be Safe

NYMEX Crude $ 38.10 UP $.6000
NY Harbor ULSD $1.1009 DN $.0183
NYMEX Gasoline $1.2643 UP $.0229

NEWS
Crude-oil futures ended higher in an abbreviated preholiday trading session Thursday, capping a strong week of gains as U.S. crude inventories fell but remained on track for significant monthly and yearly losses in the face of a stubborn global glut.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil for February delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 60 cents, or 1.6%, to close at $38.10 a barrel. WTI shot up 5.7% this week, trimming its monthly loss to 8.5%. February Brent crude on London’s ICE Exchange rose 53 cents, or 1.4%, to $37.89 a barrel. Brent, the global benchmark rose 2.7% for the week but remains down more than 15% since the end of November. For the year to date, WTI futures are off 28%, while Brent has slumped nearly 34%. Needless to say, a one-week rebound hasn’t dispelled the bearish sentiment hanging over energy futures. “Calling a bottom in the crude oil market is akin to trying to catch a freshly sharpened falling knife,” wrote Jasper Lawler, market analyst at CMC Markets, in a note. “Typically the price will bottom before the fundamental explanation for it is found. For now, with [Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries] and non-OPEC countries pumping for all they’re worth, China’s economy slowing and the U.S. dollar looking strong after the Fed rate hike, the fundamental picture looks very bearish.”

Oil futures posted sharp gains Wednesday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported the nation’s crude stockpiles fell by 5.9 million barrels last week, surprising investors who had expected a slight buildup in inventories. But analysts questioned how much mileage bulls can get out of the data. “A one week’s drop in crude-oil inventory is not a very positive thing for the markets as fundamentally it is still oversupplied,” said Alex Poon, a Hong Kong-based trader at Admis. “I don’t think this will change the downtrend in crude-oil prices.”

In an interesting wrinkle, WTI has traded at a premium this week to Brent. That hasn’t happened on a sustained basis since August 2010. Analysts have attributed the shift in part to the lifting of a nearly four-decade ban on U.S. oil exports, as well as a rise in North Sea production of Brent and year-end position squaring.