Happy Friday! Wow! Crude oil prices took a wild roller coaster ride this week. Prices started the week out soaring back near highs of $85/barrel on WTI. Then the US announced increases in national inventory coupled with the news that the FED will begin tapering and possibly raise interest rates in early summer of 2022. The news sent crude oil on a nose dive over two days of trading, closing at $79/barrel on Thursday! The closing price was the lowest in weeks. In the middle of all the news, OPEC+ had another meeting and decided to keep oil production steady, regardless of calls from the US to increase production. I figured the news would have shot prices higher, but it fell on deaf ears…until this morning. The October jobs report was knocked out of the park based on expectations, so the news coupled with OPEC’s announcement from yesterday shot WTI right back above $80/barrel. Looks like WTI is still going to close down for the week, but not nearly as much as anticipated. As I have been writing, we are in uncharted volatile territory with many players holding the crude oil trade. The next four to six months are going to be very choppy. Try not to get sick on this roller coaster ride!
In local news, the cost of diesel has finally eased a bit with harvest on the backend. Gasoline cost has eased a bit but not as much as diesel. I expect to see retail prices basically unchanged as the markets are still balancing into the supplies being sold at retail.
Propane price has continued to hold steady through this choppy trade, but that is ok. The wild ride higher seems to be kept in check at these numbers. As I have been writing, we are not out of the woods, but more on a pause. I still could see propane having some break out higher sessions depending on the amount of cold weather this winter.
As always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to give us a call.
Best regards,
Jon Crawford