I'm no expert in this. BUT some of this is obviously inflated prices from the store owners (illegal). Some of it is speculation of oil futures based on what they "think" happened to the different underground pipelines and future refining capabilities. When the actual assessments start coming in it affects the trading. The Colonial pipeline for example (I think it's the Colonial pipeline): preliminary assessments were around 37% capacity (around that) and this drove futures way up. Well I think they have since found that it can actually operate at 67% (around that) which drives the futures down. The oil market fluctuates just like any other stock. If China was nuked off the map (what a shame ) prices of everything would skyrocket, even tho the effect of the situation wouldn't be felt till later, probably not much later, but still after the price increase. I'm sure there is someone here that can explain it much better than I can.