A Retreat on the Gas Front

Here's the latest for everyone watching the markets, and, if you're into it, the numbers for gasoline have been captivating!

There's a retreat happening out there with gasoline, and a lot of people are probably going to wonder why. My thinking is that, even though there have been draws on inventory, along with total product supplied also dropping, you have to come to the realization that any drop in inventories has to be "industry caused".

Just because consumers are consuming doesn't mean that they're solely responsible for the impact on inventories. If you cut back on overall supply by cutting back on the refiner's ability to produce gasoline, then any draw-down on inventories is artificial in nature and doesn't reflect the reality of the markets. My thinking here is that consumers have collectively impacted inventories as a result of consuming product, but not consuming it to the degree that the industry thought it would, because of the price that gasoline was selling for lately.

Make sense?

It will by Thursday, if you hold back on your next major purchase: See, I have gasoline dropping by 7.3 cents a litre by then, barring the fact that we still have two trading days to go.

Either way, the numbers are still going to be down, but we'll need the final two days data to really tell you how much you'll be saving when the next price setting is due to come. I'll let you all know exactly how much on Tuesday night.

You might want to tell your friends to hold back until then too...

Regards until then!

George

Twitter: @GeorgeMurphyNDP