Fueling Strategy: Partial fill only tonight, Saturday AM wholesale prices will drop 1.5 cents – Be Safe Today!

NYMEX Crude $ 33.16 DN $.1100
NY Harbor ULSD $1.0521 DN $.0135
NYMEX Gasoline $1.1277 DN $.0183

NEWS
Oil futures failed to recover Friday from weekly losses that pulled prices down by more than 10%, even as the Chinese stock market rose and the U.S. jobs data came in much stronger than expected. February West Texas Intermediate crude fell 11 cents, or 0.3%, to settle at $33.16 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after seesawing between losses and gains. For the week, prices ended 10.5% lower for the largest weekly loss since the week ended Dec. 11. The settlement was the lowest since February 2004, according to FactSet data.
February Brent crude , the global oil benchmark, lost 20 cents, or 0.6%, to $33.55 a barrel, for a weekly loss of about 10%. That was the lowest price settlement since June 2004. Oil futures had climbed toward session highs after data showed the U.S. economy added 292,000 jobs in December, easily topping forecasts for a gain of 215,000. The unemployment rate remained at 5%.

Upbeat economic data bodes well for the prospects for energy demand. But the jobs numbers also spurred strength in the U.S. dollar , which put some pressure on dollar-denominated prices of crude oil, said Matt Smith, director of commodity research at Clipper Data. Separately, Baker Hughes Inc. said Friday that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil fell for a third straight week, down 20 to 516 rigs. The count has fallen sharply since oil prices started dropping last year, but that hasn’t been enough to relieve the global crude glut.

Crude settled 2.1% lower on Thursday after the Chinese government allowed the yuan to fall faster than anticipated. The move triggered a rapid stock sell off in China that rattled global markets and fueled fears on the oil market about the health of the world’s second-biggest oil consumer. On Friday, however, Chinese stocks rose and the yuan strengthened after authorities overnight removed a circuit breaker mechanism blamed for triggering more volatility. The Shanghai Composite Index finished up 2% after a 7% plunge Thursday.