Fueling Strategy: Please wait to fuel tonight, wholesale prices will drop another 3 cents Thursday AM – Be Safe Today!

NYMEX Crude $ 46.64 DN $.0200
NY Harbor ULSD $1.4833 UP $.0125
NYMEX Gasoline $1.3083 DN $.0057

NEWS
Oil futures settled barely lower on Wednesday, recouping nearly all of their earlier losses after a spate of disappointing U.S. economic data that dulled the prospects for energy demand. Traders awaited weekly reports that are expected to show an increase in domestic crude supplies.

November West Texas Intermediate crude fell 2 cents to settle at $46.64 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That marked a third straight session decline for WTI oil. November Brent crude traded on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell 9 cents, or 0.2%, to $49.15 a barrel. “Oil is consolidating the sharp turnaround we saw early this week after last week’s short covering rally through key resistance in the high $40s,” said Tyler Richey, co-editor of The 7:00’s Report. WTI crude prices climbed 9% last week. But “optimism around a renewed rally is fading as traders continue to eye a very healthy global supply situation,” he said. Traders are in “wait and see mode,” he said, ahead of supply reports from the American Petroleum Institute due later Wednesday and the U.S. Energy Information Administration set for Thursday. Both will be released a day late this week because of Monday’s Columbus Day holiday. Analysts polled by Platts expect to see crude-oil stockpiles up by 1.8 million barrels in the week ended Oct. 9. U.S. production data will be key in the EIA report “as the trend turned higher last week with the output figure in the lower 48 overtaking the 4-week moving average,” said Richey. “If that continues, investors can expect more selling pressure in the near term.”

On Wednesday, U.S. economic data were downbeat, which suggests weaker demand for energy. Retail sales barely rose and the producer-price index fell by a bigger-than-expected 0.5%. August business inventories were unchanged. Oil is still in a downtrend, after WTI oil’s rally from the August lows was halted last Friday at the 200-day moving average of $50.94, said Taki Tsaklanos, head of research at Secular Investor. For now, crude oil is trading between its 50-day moving average at $44.73 and 200-day moving average at $50.94, he said.