Fueling Strategy: Please partial fill tonight, Wednesday AM wholesale prices will drop 1.50 – Be Safe

NYMEX Crude      $ 55.93 UP $.0200
NY Harbor ULSD $1.9600 DN $.0417
NYMEX Gasoline $1.5410 DN $.0354

DON’T FORGET TO BUY YOUR ADDITIVE:
www.fuelmanagerservices.com then click on buy-additive

NEWS
New York-traded crude-oil futures limped across the finish line Tuesday closing up 2 cents, enough to snap a four-day losing streak but hardly inviting investors to think that significantly higher crude -oil prices are in the offing.

Trading in oil, as with many markets Tuesday, was characterized by jarring swings. Prices for oil futures trading on the New York Mercantile exchange made a sharp turnaround , briefly touching an all-low of $53.60 and latter hitting a high of $57.15 a barrel. London’s Brent crude also pared its losses significantly. The choppy trading for oil was matched by similar volatility in gold, a haven play.

Gains in the stock market also melted, with the S&P 500 Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq ending sharply lower by the end of the day. The Dow had been up higher by as much as 230 points before concluding Tuesday’s trading down about 112 points. “The whipsaw that we had just highlights the volatility in this market,” said Matt Smith, an analyst with Schneider Electric. Some believed a price bottom had been reached, but then some jumped out when prices rose perhaps too much, too soon, he said.

Light, sweet crude for delivery in January rose 2 cents, or 0.04%, to settle at $55.93 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Tuesday’s diminutive gains held the dubious distinction of being West Texas Intermediate’s largest one-day percentage and dollar gain in a week. January Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $1.20, or 2%, to end at $59.86 a barrel. Brent extended its losing streak to a fifth session, and the settlement was the lowest for Brent since May 19, 2009. Brent and WTI are off 50% from price peaks in June.

Earlier Tuesday, some analysts saw physical buyers such as refineries likely taking advantage of prices at their lowest in more than five years to stock up. Such buying, however, comes in waves and might not be enough for a sustained rally in prices, said Carl Larry, an oil consultant with Frost & Sullivan in Houston. Oil prices had plunged earlier in the global day following news of a dramatic interest-rate hike in Russia and a further slowdown in China’s manufacturing sector.

Russia’s central bank hiked its interest rates to 17% from 10.5% late Monday in a bid to support its currency, but that unleashed an even more ferocious run on the ruble. Meanwhile, China’s manufacturing sector showed a decline as HSBC’s China flash manufacturing purchasing managers’ index for December slid to a seven-month low of 49.5, compared with 50.0 in November. There was little sign of strength from Europe’s struggling economies on Tuesday. The German service and composite PMI data fell to multi-month lows, though the manufacturing PMI rose to two-month high. France’s manufacturing PMI fell to a four-month low.

Oil prices have been sliding for months amid a glut in supply, in part due to the U.S. shale revolution, and weak demand. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which last month decided not to curb production to support prices, won’t call for an emergency meeting unless something drastic happens in the oil market, the United Arab Emirates’ oil minister, Suhail Al Mazrouei, said Monday. He said the cartel won’t cut its production level for now as the move would only provide a temporary fix to the price drop.