The snow in Washington

Consumers can be a little upset this week, not that Barack Obama had anything to do with it though...

This past trading week was a little strange on the oil side, and the weather helped to support numbers just a little, numbers that were supposed to start falling mid-week instead of Friday.

What happened?

Weather was a key factor.

Instead of the Energy Information Administration in the United States releasing its oil report as per the Wednesday schedule, it was released on Friday because of the snowstorms in the Washington area. Those numbers were an important factor in numbers being down now, nonetheless. If Fridays numbers are any indication on where oil prices will be in the coming days, then the direction will be "down". If those numbers had to be released on the regular day, we would have seen a larger impact on prices.

Here's what I have for this regulation period, so far:

• Heating and stove oils down by 41/100ths of a cent.
• Diesel down by 3/10ths, and...
• Gasoline down by 7/10ths.

I'll be back tomorrow night with the final numbers along with a look at retail heating oil prices in the immediate St. John's area.

Regards for now!

George