Diesel's street margin is near its widest in a month

The diesel retail-wholesale spread is $1.067 a gallon, near its widest in a month. Every gallon you move from the rack to the pump is carrying more margin than it did a month back. If you sell diesel, that is the number that pays your bills this week, and right now it is working in your favor.

Retail diesel is $5.257, up 9.6% over the past 30 days and sitting at 82% of its month range. Your wholesale cost is climbing too, with ULSD futures at $4.294, up 6.1% and near the top of their own range at 89%. The reason the spread opened up is that the street price climbed faster than the cost behind it. Gasoline is going the other way. RBOB is $3.003, down 7.4% over 30 days and near the bottom of its range at 24%, so if diesel is your bread and butter you are on the better side of the barrel today.

One caution behind the good margin: the 3:2:1 crack spread tightened to 59.78, down 3.77 over the month. The refiner's cut is narrowing, not yours, but a tighter crack means the overall board is less generous than it was, and diesel is carrying more of the load. As long as gasoline stays soft and diesel demand holds, your retail diesel margin could hold near this level or widen a little further, but a break in either direction on the futures side would move it, so watch the ULSD number more than the pump price this week.