Winter's arrival keeps prices higher

You know winter has arrived when it takes over 3 hours to travel 50 miles on the Mass Pike.  The cold snap and glancing blow of a Nor’easter to the New England area had buyers out today.  Looming out on the horizon is another round of Inventory stats that are expected to be a mirror image of the last two weeks, draws in Crude and small builds in products.  While it is tough to distinguish between Holiday exuberance or a real change in sentiment, many out there are pointing to signs of a better economic picture.  How that has changed in only two weeks, I have no idea.  With the large Hovensa refinery attempted to be restarted, this has also attributed to the higher close.  Crude settled at $89.82 up .45 (again just shy of the $90 mark that has held all year)  RBOB added .0207 to $2.3985 and HEAT added .0269 to $2.5164.  With a short week for most and the Inventory report tomorrow we should expect a volatile session or two ahead of us.