Oil Majors Resist New Refinery Investment as Fuel Prices Keep Rising

Refiners withholding capital from new capacity keeps product supply tight while demand holds, sustaining elevated crack spreads and supporting crude benchmarks. Persistent fuel-price strength feeds inflation expectations and complicates central-bank easing, pressuring rate-sensitive equities and duration. Energy names with existing capacity capture margin upside, while downstream consumers face cost headwinds. Watch refinery utilization and outage data as the near-term swing factors for refined products.