On April 10th, we had warned the spring price rally along with summer gas specification changes were upon us and soon retail gasoline prices would breach the $3.00 mark. Looking at GasBuddy, retail gas prices today across Pennsylvania $3.00 plus prices are now the norm. Pittsburgh with RFG gasoline leads the state with an average $3.15 per gallon 87 grade pump price.
We also reported on April 10th local distributors were having a difficult time making money since wholesale price was moving higher faster than they were able to raise street prices. Now, the reverse is happening. We are in the demand season and wholesale prices have started declining with a little help from the administrations announcement of additional trade tariffs on China. Even so, after weeks of trending higher the market appeared overbought and ripe for correction. Between yesterday and today, the gasoline market is off 9 cents providing some much needed margin for retailers.
If the trend continues retail prices will hold and wholesale will decline setting retail up for big margins at the pump.