The reason for falling oil prices explained (maye)

captnjack wrote:

wannavolunteerFT wrote:
Gas here went from 2.58 at 0730 of election day to 2.75 by 1700. that's 18 cents during one day. I has gone back down a bit to 2.70 since then, not back to where it was just a week ago. When the price increases 18 cents in less time than the polls are open, I can't help but think that politics has some play in pricing, somehow. I understand supply and demand but can't link these price changes to supply and demand.. at least the way it was taught to me in business school.

How could politics possibly have something to do with an 18 cent increase in less than one business day? The only entity that could affect prices that quickly is the station owner.

It doesn't but then it's not the station owner either. The station owner can decide to raise profits by a penny or two and that's about it. The cost of crude is controlled by organisations like OPEC which the USA is not a member of. Now if one of the members decides to set it's own prices, drop production, etc. for internal reasons, it can and does.