Retail diesel prices continue to slide and did so last week even as diesel futures were mostly steady for a change.

The Department of Energy/Energy Information Administration average retail diesel price fell 5.1 cents a gallon last week to $5.033. The benchmark price used for most fuel surcharges has now dropped 10 of the past 11 weeks and is down 77.7 cents a gallon since its high of $5.81 on June 20.

The decline came during a week when futures and wholesale prices were mostly stable, particularly in comparison with the wild volatility of most of 2022. 

Between the settlement of $3.5780 a gallon on Sept. 2, closing out that week, and the settlement a week later of $3.5787 on Friday, the benchmark futures price moved just 0.007 cents a gallon.

But what's significant now are the advances of the past two days. In the same way that bearish trends prevailed in the market for the second half of August, traders in the past two trading days suddenly are looking at various bullish factors. The result has been significant gains in the benchmark price of Brent crude, which settled last Wednesday at $88 a barrel and is up to $94 after the Monday settlement.