Not much change in the numbers

Hi to all...

Another quiet week in the markets means not much movement to fuel prices again this week.

Here's what I have coming for this Thursday morning when the PUB moves to adjust prices:

• Heating and stove oils should drop by 37/100ths of a cent.
• Diesel to drop by 4/10ths, and...
• Gasoline shows an added 8/10ths of a cent.
  

Some market highlights:

• Some lack of faith amongst consumers today resulted in a retreat by oil prices from a high this week of $79.30 US a barrel. Oil started out this pricing period at $76.28 US a barrel. What is known in the US as the Sentiment Index declined to a five month low on the US job outlook and that started today's oil sell-off. The expectation are that things are not likely to turn around for at least the next six months in the US as consumers worry over paying down debt.
• July 23rd broke in Europe with the report of several European banks failing their means test. The test was designed to test the ability of main European banks to raise funds in the event of an impending credit crunch. The European Union ended up having to come up with another 4.5 billion Euro to cover those same banks adding some questions about European economic recovery.
• Inventories of crude oil and its related refined commodities also showed gains in inventory, gasoline inventory increasing by 1.1 million barrels last week. While not a huge increase, it is possibly signaling weakening demand as consumers turn their eyes to the weak US economic recovery. Demand for gasoline remained at a stagnant two per cent over last years numbers.

That's it for this week!

Regards,

George Murphy
Group researcher/Member
Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices