Fueling Strategy: Please keep tanks topped tonight, Thursday AM wholesale prices will go UP 3 cents – Be Safe Tonight!

NYMEX Crude $ 48.19 DN $.1200
NY Harbor ULSD $1.4831 UP $.0157
NYMEX Gasoline $1.6489 UP $.0148

NEWS
Oil futures settled with a narrow loss on Wednesday as the U.S. dollar gained after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting suggested the central bank might still raise interest rates in June.

Oil prices had spent much of the session trading higher as bigger-than-expected weekly declines in U.S. gasoline and distillate supplies offset pressure from a surprise rise in crude stockpiles. June West Texas Intermediate crude fell 12 cents, or 0.3%, to settle at $48.19 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices had climbed to highs near $49 and also dipped to lows under $48. It was trading up around $48.77 when minutes from the Fed meeting were released. July Brent crude fell 35 cents, or 0.7%, to end at $48.93 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange

Most of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee are ready to lift interest rates in June if the economy shows life, minutes released Wednesday show. “The market turned decidedly defensive … as a hawkish tone in today’s FOMC minutes sent all dollar-denominated assets lower, including crude oil,” said Tim Evans, chief market strategist at Long Leaf Trading Group. The news helped to strengthen the dollar Commodities priced in the greenback often trade inversely with the dollar, as moves in the U.S. unit can influence the attractiveness of those commodities to holders of other currencies.

Supplies of oil rise
Earlier Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that crude stockpiles rose by 1.3 million barrels during the week ended May 13 to 541.3 million barrels. Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts were looking for a 3 million-barrel fall. TheAmerican Petroleum Institute report late on Tuesday showed a decline of 1.1 million barrels for last week. The crude stock increase was a surprise, but even more surprising was the build of 461,000 barrels at the delivery hub in Cushing, Okla., “despite [output] disruptions from fires in the oil sands” in Canada, said John Macaluso, an analyst at Tyche Capital Advisors. An unexpected build would tend to pressure crude prices, but drawdowns in certain energy products helped support prices, he said.

Strong demand for gasoline, in particular, raised the demand prospects for the crude oil used to make the fuel, with the market set to mark the official start of the summer driving season late this month. Gasoline supplies were down by 2.5 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles fell 3.2 million barrels last week, according to the EIA. Analysts at S&P Global Platts forecast declines of 1.3 million for gasoline and 1.4 million for distillates, which include heating oil.