Finance News
By Jean-Luc Maracon
1 / 15
What happened. Diesel just broke a record nobody wanted to see broken. US prices hit $5.
2 / 15
The historical context. Energy shocks have a way of arriving, doing damage, and then getting written off as anomalies —…
3 / 15
Why it matters. Transportation costs are baked into the price of nearly everything Americans buy.
4 / 15
What to watch. A few things are worth tracking closely over the next several weeks.
5 / 15
Diesel just broke a record nobody wanted to see broken. US prices hit $5.820 per gallon, clearing the previous peak set in June 2022.
6 / 15
The Iran conflict is making everything worse. War-related energy costs have piled a $97.5 billion burden onto consumers since the fighting started.
7 / 15
Crack spreads — the margin refiners earn turning crude into diesel — have topped $100 per barrel. That's a number that would've seemed extreme even a few years ago.
8 / 15
Energy shocks have a way of arriving, doing damage, and then getting written off as anomalies — until the next one. In 2008, crude oil ran to nearly $150 a barrel.
9 / 15
The current situation has its own wrinkles. The inventory picture is arguably worse than either of those prior episodes on a seasonal basis — 1982 was the last time stocks were…
10 / 15
Transportation costs are baked into the price of nearly everything Americans buy. Diesel powers the trucks, trains, and ships that move goods from producers to store shelves.
11 / 15
That's a problem for the Federal Reserve. The Fed has been trying to wrestle inflation down without tipping the economy into a hard landing.
12 / 15
Related: Bitcoin Faces 0.8% Drop as U.S.-Iran Strikes Trigger $91M in Long Liquidations
13 / 15
The EIA report due September 10 will be the first real read on whether distillate inventories are stabilizing or continuing to fall.
14 / 15
Federal Reserve policy announcements matter here too. Any shift in the interest rate outlook, especially if energy inflation starts feeding into broader CPI readings, could move…
15 / 15
Read also: Arthur Hayes Declares Ethereum a Smarter Bet Than Bitcoin as BitMEX Closes
The Currency Analytics
Want the full story?