Gasoline could hit $3 a gallon this summer, Dan Dicker, an independent oil trader and Street.com contributor, told "Fast Money" Thursday.
That’s because he sees oil , which has slipped near a four-month low, going down to the low to mid-$80 range a barrel.
He said the recent earnings announcement from the world’s largest commodities trader Glencore International was a window into the energy market’s future. On Wednesday, CEO Ivan Glasenberg warned that he saw an enormous slowdown in demand for oil, as well as copper, in China.
“That’s a very, very big deal. These are guys who really should know,” Dicker said. “So if they say that the Chinese are slowing down here, you better believe it.”
All the marginal barrels of oil are going to China, he pointed out. “It’s all about the Chinese marketplace.”
And that translates to good news for consumers, Dicker said, because he expects prices at the pump to get as low as $3 a gallon. He also doesn’t see oil prices creeping back higher until around October.
“That should be good for a market that’s obviously had a tough time in terms of oil prices,” he said.
The "Fast Money" traders had some differing opinions on Dicker's views.
Guy Adami was pessimistic that gas prices will go down for any considerable length of time. While the lower oil prices should theoretically be a plus, he reminded that prices at the pump don’t go down nearly as fast as they go up. And he thinks that in the long term, gas prices will gravitate toward $4 a gallon, again.
And in a case of what's good for Main Street isn't always good for Wall Street, Steve Grasso didn’t think lower oil prices would have a positive impact on the stock market. Because energy was a leader in the recent bull rally, lower oil poses a challenge for the S&P. “So I would think that the S&P under Dan’s scenario is much lower.”
Steve Cortes thought Dicker’s comments were “spot on” about Chinese demands. “We’ve been so hyper-focused lately on Europe that I don’t think we’re paying enough attention to Asian risk,” he warned.
