Global Automotive Sales Data

Day 203 — AAA's national diesel average crossed $6.50 a gallon for the first time, printing $6.5050 in the reading stamped 9/20/26 for a seventeenth consecutive all-time high, up $0.0184 on the day and $0.3010 on the week; California diesel set a fresh state record at $8.4244. The EIA reported that US distillate inventories in the week ending Sep 11 ran 15.8M barrels, or 13%, below the 2021-2025 seasonal average, with refineries already at 97% utilisation, and attributes the squeeze to reduced refining in Russia, China and the Middle East (EIA Today in Energy, Sep 18). National regular was effectively flat at $4.4761, up two hundredths of a cent, while California regular rose to $6.1533 for a seventh day above $6. On the water, straits.live's AIS pulse counts 404 vessels holding position away from berth, down 65 on the figure seven days earlier, while 68 of 195 screened tankers went dark in 24 hours against a 52.8 baseline. Crude is carried unchanged with futures markets shut.