Michael Fitzpatrick Stocks Quotations

If injections from April through October match last year's pace, stocks could begin the next heating season with a record 3.6 trillion cubic feet in the ground.

While a late-winter cold snap or cool spring could whittle down some of the storage surplus, it is probably too late to prevent stocks from ending the heating season at record-high levels.

The surprising fall in gasoline stocks and the approach of the cold are sending us higher. Also, imports contracted and gasoline demand rose.

The weather is cooperating and helping us replenish supplies. The speculative frenzy that followed the hurricanes has cooled down. Lower refinery operating rates have led to rising crude-oil stocks as products have arrived from elsewhere.

Still, brimming stocks should keep any rally in check, late week cold notwithstanding.