Petroleum futures were lower Wednesday as gasoline and diesel contracts sold off after three days of modest gains.
U.S. spot market gasoline prices were also lower, with declines outpacing those for futures. Some of the weakness was likely tied to disappointment over demand last week leading into the extended U.S. Memorial Day weekend.
There is also a tendency to pull forward some summer demand on the first real busy travel holiday of the summer. The week before the holiday last year was the first of seven weeks in which implied U.S. gasoline demand held above 9 million b/d and that may be a difficult streak to repeat this year.
Gasoline futures were near their morning lows just ahead of midday. The NYMEX June RBOB contract was off by 3.56cts to 2.4734/gal. The bulk of trading volume has switched to the July RBOB contract, which was 3.68cts lower at $2.465/gal.
Gulf Coast spot gasoline prices were down by nearly 5cts/gal and declines of 4.25cts to 6cts/gal were reported in the Midwest. California markets saw stronger decline as Los Angeles cash prices were off by nearly 10cts/gal and San Francisco and Pacific Northwest prices gave back 6.25cts/gal.
Although crude contracts held up better than gasoline, the July West Texas Intermediate contract was off by 50cts to $79.33/bbl. The July Brent contract was down by 59cts to $83.63/bbl. August Brent was 50cts lower at $83.44/bbl.
Diesel also came under selling pressure, but will likely see more buying interest in coming months. Cash prices were off by 2cts to 2.75cts/gal in all U.S. cash markets.
The NYMEX June ULSD contract was down by 2.43cts to $2.4407/gal and the July contract was 2.39cts lower at $2.4594/gal.
This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
-- Reporting by Tom Kloza, tkloza@opisnet.com; Editing by Jeff Barber, jbarber@opinsnet.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
05-29-24 1231ET
