Friday, May 6, 2011

Oil prices move higher after strong jobs report?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42929608/

Amazing! Yesterday oil plummeted due to unemployment figures, yet not less than 24 hours the economy added 220,000 new jobs. Oil rises. Apparently exactly half of the 440,000 unemployed last night all were hired in the middle of the night and drove to work this morning! WOW!!!

And we have another excuse to add to the DS Gas Price Excuse Tracker!

"The hiring spree last month was the biggest in five years. That could mean more people using gas to drive to work."


(interestingly enough, the link for the article from yesterday discussing oil's drop has been erased and changed to a different article about the increase...why?)


DS Gas Price Excuse Tracker for reasons that gas prices increase:
1. Winter months, heating
2. Hurricane in Gulf of Mexico
3. Manufacturing demands by industrial nations, i.e. China
4. Americans and SUVs
5. Market speculation
6. March and April "pressures on refineries"
7. Tensions in Middle East
8. A whale died in the Atlantic
9. A turtle sneezed in the Pacific
10. Global warming
11. Pollen levels
12. Jupiter's red spot
13. The dog ate it.
14. Gas prices take a while to come down because the stations are still selling what they bought at the higher prices
15. Gas prices take no time at all to skyrocket overnight, because reason #14 doesn't apply the other way around.
16. Oil up to pay for alternative resource research
17. Because OPEC says so!
18. A special summer blend is more expensive than the winter blend, as it uses special ingredients! But I thought it was higher in the winter because of the heating demands?
19. Summer vacation, kids are off! And since they all drive cars, this makes total sense! (I guess all the school buses were running on pixie dust)
20. Memorial Day weekend and Independence Day, even tho it's still May and that's in July.
21. Weak dollar causing gas prices to rise
22. Strong dollar gets it back under $80
23. Fuel supply shortage (because OPEC cut the supply in half, right?)
24. Dollar against the Euro
25. See #1 - winter heating, as it got cold in some parts of the U.S. in October, thanks to...global warming?
*NEW*
26. Libya. It's all about Libya
27. No it's not, says Saudi Arabia. Everything is fine. Not sure why the high prices.
28. Gas station owners raise the prices ahead of time, expecting oil prices to go up. But then that means #14 can't be true!
29. Because of the unrest in Libya, more countries are buying from Algeria and Nigeria, which is where the U.S buy its oil from!
30. Benchmark broken, price of oil not related to price at the pump.
31. Gas prices lag behind oil prices by two of weeks, putting refiners in tight spot.
32. Because Deniers refuse to tackle Global Warming.
33. Saudi cutting back oil because market is flooded w/oil, no reason for high $.
34. "Hiring spree" means more people are using gas to drive to work!