New York, Jan 15, 2026, 07:12 EST — Premarket
- UGA finished Wednesday down 1.7%, while wholesale gasoline futures fell more than 2% early Thursday
- EIA reported a 9.0 million-barrel build in U.S. motor gasoline inventories for the latest week
- Traders are watching the next EIA inventory report on Jan. 22 for confirmation
The United States Gasoline Fund (UGA) closed down 1.7% on Wednesday at $64.63 and was indicated around that level in early premarket trade, as wholesale gasoline prices slid again after a sharp U.S. inventory build.
Gasoline trades carry extra weight right now because pump prices feed quickly into household budgets and inflation measures, and can change the tone for consumer and rate-sensitive bets. Moves in wholesale gasoline can filter into retail prices with a lag, but markets react first.
The latest inventory numbers also hit at an awkward time for traders: early January demand can be uneven, while refinery output often stays high after the holidays. That mix can exaggerate stock swings and push short-term pricing around.
UGA is a NYSE Arca-listed fund designed to track daily moves in gasoline using futures on reformulated gasoline blendstock for oxygenate blending (RBOB), the benchmark New York Harbor wholesale contract. Its benchmark shifts to the next-month futures contract as the near-month contract approaches expiration.
RBOB gasoline futures were down 2.6% at $1.7838 a gallon around 7 a.m. ET, after dipping as low as $1.7655 on the session, according to Investing.com data.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported total motor gasoline inventories rose by 9.0 million barrels in the week ended Jan. 9 and are about 4% above the five-year average for this time of year. Finished gasoline inventories fell, while blending components rose; refineries ran at 95.3% of operable capacity and gasoline production averaged 9.0 million barrels per day. The agency’s “product supplied” measure — often used as a proxy for demand — put motor gasoline at 8.5 million barrels per day over the past four weeks, about the same as a year earlier. EIA
For price traders, that inventory build reads as “plenty of supply,” even with the caveat that the increase was driven by blending components rather than finished gasoline. The question is whether the builds keep coming, or whether refiners trim runs and let stocks settle.
At the pump, EIA data showed the average U.S. retail gasoline price was $2.907 a gallon on Jan. 12, down from $2.925 a week earlier.
Crude oil weakness has added to the pressure in the fuel complex. Brent and U.S. crude futures slid more than 2% in early Asian trading after U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments eased concerns about a potential supply shock tied to Iran, and “selling pressure prevailed on expectations that the U.S. would not take military action against Iran,” said Hiroyuki Kikukawa, chief strategist at Nissan Securities Investment. Reuters
The crude-linked United States Oil Fund (USO) was down about 1.2% in premarket trading, pointing to a broader pullback across energy-linked products.
But the downside case is not clean. A refinery outage, an export swing, or another geopolitical flare-up can tighten prompt supply fast and flip gasoline futures higher even when inventories look comfortable on paper.
The next test is the EIA’s weekly petroleum status report due on Jan. 22, when traders will look for whether gasoline inventories keep building and whether refinery runs stay near recent highs.
