But reflecting the current state of a market that has swung in a relatively tight range for several weeks, the price used for most fuel surcharges rose Monday by just 0.6 cents a gallon, to $4.034 per gallon. Outside of the week of Feb. 19, when the price was unchanged, this week's move is the first since Oct. 2 that didn't reach even 1 cent, up or down.
Oil markets have moved in recent weeks in a range that isn't particularly tight but does seem to be defined. It's been marked by upward moves that eventually fizzle and downard moves that find a bottom and rebound.
The result is a diesel market that in the past 25 days has settled on the CME commodity exchange as high as $2.7882 a gallon on March 18, and as low as $2.6065 on March 5. The Monday settlement of $2.6786 is closer to the low than the high, but that comes after a day in which it rose 2.58 cents a gallon over the Friday settlement. However, it's also just under the $2.6825-per-gallon average for those 25 days, which mark a period that began with a close less than $2.80 a gallon.
By contrast, during the ...