Diesel's retail-wholesale spread is $1.654 a gallon, about 35 cents wider than a month ago

That spread is the gap between what diesel costs you wholesale and what it brings at the pump, and it moved to $1.654 from a gain of $0.354 over the past 30 days. For a hauler or jobber, that is roughly 35 cents a gallon more street margin on diesel than you had a month back, before your own costs. If you price off rack plus a fixed cents number, the market has given you room to hold margin or stay sharp on volume accounts, your call.

Crude backs up the easier side of this. WTI is $95.61, down 5.7 percent on the month, and it is at the 73 percent mark of its 30-day range of $68.25 to $105.83. RBOB gasoline is $3.144, off 5.2 percent, near the middle of its range at the 47 percent mark. Both wholesale legs eased while retail diesel held, which is how the spread got where it is. The 3:2:1 crack is $61.27, barely changed at plus $0.32, so refiners are earning about what they were, not more.

The odd number today is natural gas. Henry Hub is $3.264, up 12.7 percent over 30 days and at the 95 percent mark of its range, near the top. Storage is 3500, at the 100 percent mark, the full top of its 30-day range. A high storage number usually caps a gas price, so these two pulling opposite ways is worth a note if you run gas-fired equipment or price any product off it. Refinery utilization is 92.7, down 5.2 percent, still a normal running level.

The diesel spread is the one to watch. It widened on softer wholesale rather than stronger retail, so if crude firms back toward the top of its range the gap could narrow again and squeeze that 35 cents. For now it is real money per gallon sitting in the diesel leg.