Diesel street margin is $1.639 a gallon, its widest in a month

The retail-wholesale spread on diesel is $1.639 a gallon right now, the widest it has been in the past 30 days. If you sell diesel at the pump, you have more room per gallon than you had a month ago.

Retail diesel is 6.529, sitting at the very top of its 30-day range and up 15.5 percent on the month. Wholesale climbed too, but slower than retail, so the difference between the two widened and the extra margin came from that. The refining side moved the other way. The 3:2:1 crack spread is 61.19, down 9.18 over the same 30 days, so refiners are earning less on each barrel even while the street margin on diesel opened up. Two different parts of the chain, pulling in opposite directions on the same fuel.

Crude tells you the products ran harder than the raw barrel. WTI is 92.44, up 12.4 percent and at 64 percent of its 30-day range. Brent is 97.47, up 11.0 percent and at 70 percent of its range. Both are higher, but neither is pinned to the top the way diesel at 100 percent and gasoline at 99 percent are. When the finished fuel is at its range high and the crude behind it is not, the pressure is downstream, at the rack and the pump.

Gasoline is 4.61, up 9.3 percent and one tick off the top of its own range, so the same squeeze is on both fuels at once. If wholesale diesel keeps closing on the 6.529 retail number, that added street margin could give some of itself back, so it is worth pricing today's loads against where wholesale lands rather than where it was last week.