It’s the speculation, stupid.
Gasoline futures on Nymex have risen every day since July 13 and prices have jumped 28 cents in less than two weeks.
“There’s just a crowd behavior, and it’s forcing prices above what it should be,” said Fred Rozell, retail pricing director at Oil Price Information Service. “People are acting emotionally.”
Crude prices also rallied this week as the Dow Jones industrial average increased 11 percent in the last nine days and passed the 9,000 mark for the first time since January.
We talked about this here, here, here and here. Oh, and just in case you were thinking I’m out in left field, the CFTC is about to reverse it’s ruling last year. And say that yes, indeed, speculation drove up prices.