Diesel Crack Spread Madness Deepens As Jefferies Finds No Easy Exit From Russia’s Refining Crisis
Refined-product markets have emerged as the epicenter of the global energy crisis, with commodity desks across Wall Street, including Goldman, Citi, Bank of America and Jefferies, warning that disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and Ukraine’s ongoing long-range drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure are converging into a perfect storm for global fuel supplies. As we close out this week, Monday marked a historic milestone, with Bloomberg’s front-month US diesel crack spread (HOCL1 Index) topping $100 per barrel for the first time as the diesel shortage intensified and the spread landed on everyone’s radar. Four days before the HOCL1 Index breached the $100 mark, we cited notable Wall Street commodity desks that warned about the “perfect storm” brewing in refining markets: Then, early Monday morning, we reported: By late evening, our X post on the HOCL1 Index had gone absolutely viral because a reading above $100 is not only unprecedented, but also suggests, as we noted, that the “industrial economy either grinds to a halt or consumers are about to be hit with the biggest …
