Crude, gas and diesel down ever so slightly

WTI Crude settled at $76.35 on the NYMEX this afternoon, down $0.59 as traders switched focus to weak demand and rising inventories within the United States. Speculators may finally be paying attention to the year long fall in US energy consumption which is forecast to show a 4% decline through all of 2009 vs. 2008. On the bullish side, the Energy Information Administration revealed refiners are operating at just 79.9 percent of their operable capacity last week, their lowest levels ever!