Fueling Strategy: Please partial fill only tonight, Friday AM wholesale prices will fall over 6 cents – Be Safe Today!

NYMEX Crude $ 45.20 DN $1.1200
NY Harbor ULSD $1.4872 DN $0.0163
NYMEX Gasoline $1.3610 DN $0.0309

NEWS
Oil futures on Thursday marked their lowest settlement level in more than a week, as a growing U.S. crude stockpile and strength in the dollar pulled prices below $46 a barrel.
Natural-gas prices, meanwhile, rallied following a weekly update on U.S. inventories.

December West Texas Intermediate crude dropped $1.12, or 2.4%, to settle at $45.20 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That was the lowest settlement since Oct. 27. December Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange edged down by 60 cents, or 1.2%, to $47.98 a barrel, with prices also at their lowest close in over a week. Comments from Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen Wednesday “sent a shock wave through the markets” causing a big spike in the dollar, said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group. Yellen made it clear that “a rate hike is data dependent but that is not very helpful to oil prices after a slightly disappointing weekly Energy Information Administration supply report,” said Flynn.

Other U.S. Federal Reserve officials have stressed that a December interest-rate hike would be appropriate if the labor market remains robust, so Friday’s monthly jobs report may influence the central bank’s decision. Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart on Thursday said the case for a rate hike will “continue to firm up.” The ICE U.S. dollar Index Thursday held on to its recent gains. A stronger dollar often pressures prices for dollar-denominated commodities, such as oil.

On Wednesday, WTI prices on Wednesday lost 3.3% to mark the largest one-day dollar and percentage decline in more than three weeks after the EIA said crude-oil inventories rose 2.8 million barrels in the week ended Oct. 30, their sixth straight weekly increase. Still, the data also showed a larger-than-expected increase in refining activity, which means refiners are digesting more of the stockpiles.