Opinion ID: 103352
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: the spot market prices during the buying program.

Text: In 1935 the 14 independent Mid-Continent refiners named in the indictment sold 377,988,736 gallons of gasoline. Of that output, the corporate respondents purchased about 56,200,000 gallons or approximately 15% [41] and the defendant companies who went to trial, about 17%. The monthly purchases of all defendant companies from Mid-Continent independents from March 1935 to April 1936 usually ranged between 600 and 900 tank cars and in a few months somewhat exceeded those amounts. Major company buying began under the Mid-Continent program on March 7, 1935. During the week before that buying commenced the Mid-Continent spot market for third grade gasoline rose 3/8¢. The low quotation on third grade gasoline was 3 1/2¢ on March 6, 1935. It rose to 4 3/4¢ early in June. That advance was evidenced by ten successive steps. The market on third grade gasoline then levelled out on a plateau which extended into January 1936, except for a temporary decline in the low quotation late in 1935. By the middle of January the low again had risen, this time to 5 1/4¢. It held substantially at that point until the middle of February 1936. By the end of February it had dropped to 5¢. It then levelled off at that low and remained there into May 1936 when the low dropped first to 4 7/8¢ and then to 4 3/4¢. It stayed there until the first week in July 1936. The low then rose to 4 7/8¢, maintained that level until mid-August, then started to drop until by successive steps it had declined to 4 1/2¢ before the middle of September. It stayed there until early October when it rose to 4 5/8¢, continuing at that level until middle November when it rose to 4 3/4¢. The low remained at substantially that point throughout the balance of 1936. During 1935, as the Mid-Continent spot market for third grade gasoline was rising, so was the East Texas spot market. And when in June 1935 the former levelled off for the balance of the year at a low of 4 3/4¢, the latter [42] levelled off, as we have seen, at a low of 4 5/8¢. During this period there were comparable movements on the Mid-Continent spot market for regular gasoline. From a low of 4 3/8¢ on March 7, 1935, it rose to a low of 5 5/8¢ early in June, that advance being evidenced by nine successive steps. As in the case of third grade gasoline, the market for regular gasoline then levelled out on a plateau which extended into January 1936. By the middle of January the low had risen to 6 1/8 ¢. It held at that point until the middle of February 1936. By the end of February it had dropped to 5 7/8¢. It rose to 6¢ in the first week of March, levelled off at that low and remained there into August 1936. By mid-August it started to drop  reaching 5 1/2¢ in September, going to 5 5/8¢ in October and to 5 3/4¢ in November, where it stayed through the balance of 1936. These plateaus are clearly shown by a chart of the market journals' quotations. But that does not of course mean that all sales on the spot market were made between the high and the low during the period in question. As we have said, the quotations of the market journals merely indicated the range of prices (usually an eighth) within which the bulk of the gasoline was being sold. Hence actual sales took place above the high and below the low. Thus between June and December 1935 while the low for third grade gasoline remained substantially at 4 3/4¢ and the high at 4 7/8¢ jobbers' and consumers' purchases [43] ranged from 4 3/8¢ to 5 1/8¢. A similar condition existed as respects regular gasoline. Purchases by the major companies likewise did not always fall within the range of these quotations. In fact, between 85 and 90% of their purchases from the independent refiners were made at prices which were at or below the low quotations in the market journals. [44] There were few such purchases above the high and not a substantial percentage at the high. [45]