Something To Watch Going Forward -- May 15, 2015

Don noticed this, the narrowing between the price of diesel and the price of gasoline. In all my years of blogging, it seems the price of diesel was significantly higher than least expensive grade of gasoline.

In the graphic below, it appears that the spread between the price of gasoline and the price of diesel is narrowing.

It may simply mean nothing more than supply and demand as we move into the summer driving season.

However, when one looks at

• GDPNow forecast for 2Q15, forecast for 0.7% growth, and shrinking
• 1Q15 GDP of 0.1 to 0.2% and possibly will be revised downward
• industrial output declines (in today's report) for the second consecutive month
• the marked decline in activity in the US oil and gas industry

One might see something other than the upcoming summer driving season to explain what's going on.

Is it possible the price of diesel is reflecting lower rail activity and lower trucking activity? Someone else noted the problem with the rail industry also.

Perhaps this snapshot in time is nothing more than an anomaly that will go away next week, but if nothing else, something that might be interesting to watch.