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Locally, diesel has been selling for close to $4.30 a gallon for several months, while gas got as high as $4.20 per gallon recently, and slowly went down to about $3.70.

What is the reason???? Why doesn't diesel go down in price?

I would suspect speculators. Why is crude down, yet we don't see gas going down to match it? Has production increased in cost? Can any of these prices be justified? No, they can't.

Long and the short of it: we need diesel more than gas. Diesel runs our OTR rigs, our trains, our generators, our UPS and FEDEX trucks, and just about anything else we depend on. They finally caught on.

Speculators wreck everything. :thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown:

twall said:

I would suspect speculators. Why is crude down, yet we don't see gas going down to match it? Has production increased in cost? Can any of these prices be justified? No, they can't.

Long and the short of it: we need diesel more than gas. Diesel runs our OTR rigs, our trains, our generators, our UPS and FEDEX trucks, and just about anything else we depend on. They finally caught on.

Speculators wreck everything. :thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown:

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Twall, I see the reasoning behind your answer but I think we consume much more gasoline than diesel fuel You would think that given a lower demand for diesel fuel there would be a price break someplace in the supply chain. I posted the same query on TBN gonna head over there now to see what responses were left.

All I can say is nothing in the market works like it should when speculators are involved. Unfortunately, commodities like fuel, electricity, and gold (just to name a few) are their playground.

They are evil, greedy swine that will stop at nothing to make a quick buck.

Diesel has dropped to $3.88 has been there for over a wk...
Don't really expect it, or gas, to stay down as we get into summer ...

Futures market players deserve every loss they get & then some... :smile:KennyV

KennyV said:

Diesel has dropped to $3.88 has been there for over a wk...
Don't really expect it, or gas, to stay down as we get into summer ...

Futures market players deserve every loss they get & then some... :smile:KennyV

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what is a futures market players?

KennyV said:

...Futures market players deserve every loss they get & then some... :smile:KennyV

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Futures market players = speculators. Just a fancy name.

do speculators differ from traders?

LandN said:

do speculators differ from traders?

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Slightly. ONLY slightly. On the DARK side of slightly, mind you.....:wink:

Watching 'future players' is about as frustrating, and 'entertaining', as watching dreamers play poker. (funny for a little while, then just very annoying), everyone has a 'secret plan':laughing:....
Fortunately with the economic down turn ... there are less of these weasels wasting other peoples money... but there are still some playing at things they know little about... and it can influence the market... :smile:KennyV

there certainly is some shady deals i'm sure by some participants,as well as scams and secret plans,etc.,but ALL businesses has a certain amount of shenanigans going on. the uninformed unfamiliar public see's and hears the news on prices being driven up by the street and assumes the entire street is crooked.sort of the broad brush theory. one thing the little guy can do is ALSO take part in the buy and sell(trading)and if the high price of deisel affects you at the pump then take part in the trading and buy into some oil related stock,futures, etf's etc.learn what you can about trading and try to make a little money to ..get back at 'em..put some money back in your pocket.:smile:

Yesterday, to my astonishment, diesel fuel came down THIRTY CENTS a gallon in price, to $3.99.9 per gallon, I had my two 5 gallon cans stored in my GMC ready to fill. Left home to run errands, by 3 pm the price had already gone up to $4.06.9 per gallon. Gasoline was selling for about $3.75 per gallon then. Today, 27 hours later. gasoline has jumped to $4.20 a gallon again. Frickin' crooks.

Update....gasoline here locally was selling for as low as $3.65 per gallon yesterday morning and then in the afternoon all the stations raised their price to $4.20.9 or $4.30.9 per gallon in a matter of hours. Yet in many places diesel has remained at $4.05.9. Been a LONG TIME since I have seen diesel selling for less that gasoline !!!!

At most gas stations the amount of deisel sold is far less than the amount of gasoline, and it takes longer for the deisel to sell so the price remains the same for a longer period until the owner of the station can adjust the price in relation to what he thinks his replacement cost will be. If he paid $3.60/gal for the deisel, you can add an average of 48 cents for taxes to that, so now you're up to $4.08/gal, throw in 3 to 5 cents profit for the staion and now you're at $4.13/gal. Going by past trends, the owner thinks the price may be higher the next time he has to buy deisel, so he adds another 5 cents /gal to the price to cover that projected rise in his cost, so now you're at $4.18/gal. If he dropped his price 10 cents/gal because crude prices just dropped $XX/ barrel, he'd be making nothing on the fuel he's already purchased. He might reduce his price by the 5 cents increase he projected, but until that fuel is gone, he must charge at least $4.13/gal to maintain his meager profit margin.

Oddball said:

If he paid $3.60/gal for the deisel, ...... he adds another 5 cents /gal to the price

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Wow you have stations that are operating on LESS than a one & a half percent margin???

My friends in the retail fuel business are Way ahead of that #.... :smile:KennyV

KennyV said:

Wow you have stations that are operating on LESS than a one & a half percent margin???

My friends in the retail fuel business are Way ahead of that #.... :smile:KennyV

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I don't know exact figures as I'm not in the fuel business, but I'm pretty sure, at least in GA, I've heard the figures in the neighborhod of 5 cents a gallon actual profit for gas station owners. That's what I was basing my statement on. It varies by region I'm sure. GA historically has some of the cheapest fuel prices in the country.

Oddball said:

...in the neighborhod of 5 cents a gallon actual profit for gas station owners. ...

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Ahhhh
'actual' profit is likely 'net' profit...
and 5cents net is a very nice dividend after removing every possible chargeable cost...
I had thought you meant they were working with only a 5 cent mark-up... :smile:KennyV