Keep US Posted Urges Incoming Postmaster General David Steiner to Pause July Postage Rate Hike Taking Effect the Day Before He Begins

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index increased 2.7% in June after rising 0.3% in May. In June, the index equaled 120.1 (2015=100) versus 116.9 in May. “June’s jump tells me a couple of things: first, the transition in the freight market from spot back to contract continues. ATA’s tonnage index is dominated by contract freight, so while the spot market has slowed as freight softens, contract carriers are backfilling those losses with loads from shippers reducing spot market exposure," said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. "Essentially, the market is transitioning back to pre-pandemic shares of contract versus spot market. “Second, and perhaps equally important, while economic growth is expected to be soft overall in the second quarter, the goods-economy wasn’t as bad as feared," he said. May’s increase was revised down from our June 21 press release.

Futures added 0.7 percent in New York after advancing 3.3 percent the previous two sessions. The global economic recovery has gained traction and oil de-stocking gathered pace in recent months, Barkindo said Tuesday. Producers in the U.S. Gulf have cut output by a million barrels a day, or 59 percent, because of Tropical Storm Nate, the Bureau of Safety & Environmental Enforcement said. Oil has inched higher in the past few days -- following the biggest weekly loss since May -- on signs of tighter supply. U.S. crude stockpiles probably fell by 2.4 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey before an Energy Information Administration report Thursday. Barkindo, speaking in New Delhi, said the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries had boosted oil-demand estimates for this year and next. “OPEC is talking to a market which is currently prepared to listen, given the visible improvements seen during the past few months,” said Ole Sloth Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank A/S. Click Read More below for more of the story.

American Dollar to Canadian Dollar = 0.780393; American Dollar to Chinese Yuan = 0.156770; American Dollar to Euro = 1.178209; American Dollar to Japanese Yen = 0.009010; American Dollar to Mexican Peso = 0.050626.