Oil prices jump amid gas shortfall

It's trading at almost $65 a barrel, up more than $2 on the day, because traders are betting that gasoline supplies won't be able to meet summertime demand. And they might have a point: inventories are well under their five-year-average, and refinery operating rates are under 90 percent (they should be closer to 95 percent). As always, the problem is that the refineries are old and tend to break down a lot. That's why supplies are so iffy, just as the Memorial Day approaches. Speaking of which, AAA is forecasting that 38.3 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more, an increase of 1.7 percent from last year. Meantime, as reported by Bloomberg, the profit margin, or "crack," for turning crude oil into fuels is $30.58 a barrel, the highest since at least 1989. One piece of good news: inventories rose 1.76 million barrels last week, largely because of gains on the west coast.