Commodities for Thursday, June 13, 1985 : Petroleum Futures Rally

Demand for unleaded gasoline appeared to spark a rally in petroleum futures Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Prices rallied in spite of a report Tuesday from the American Petroleum Institute that gasoline stocks increased by 4.5 million gallons in the week ended June 7.

Andy Lebow, a petroleum analyst in New York with Shearson Lehman Bros., said floor sources indicated that commercial concerns that deal in gasoline were major buyers in the gasoline pit, a development that gave impetus to the rally.

Companies apparently were buying back contracts that they had sold in the previous session when prices were falling in response to the API report, Lebow said.

But he added that consumption of gasoline in the week before and the week after the Memorial Day holiday showed record consumption for this decade.

In addition, he said, a report that Ecuador would reduce its output of crude oil encouraged buying in the crude oil pit.

Grain and soybean futures prices were mixed on the Chicago Board of Trade.