AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report for Friday, 1/3/25

Oil prices rose for a third straight session on Wednesday as a reported fall in U.S. inventories bolstered expectations that the long-oversupplied market was moving toward balance. Brent crude futures were up 17 cents to $50.37 a barrel by 7:05 a.m. ET (1105 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures climbed 28 cents to $48.17 a barrel. Both contracts rose to eight-week highs earlier in the session and rallied more than 3 percent on Tuesday. Click Read More below for more of the story.

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index rose 0.4% in December after decreasing 2.5% in November. In December, the index equaled 115.2 (2015=100) versus 114.8 in November. “Despite the small gain in December, for-hire truck tonnage clearly decelerated during the final quarter in 2022,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “In fact, tonnage outperformed some other key metrics that drive truck freight, like housing starts and factory output during the final month of the year. This is probably because contract truckload freight is still outperforming the spot market and less-than-truckload freight after underperforming both of those sectors in 2021.” For all of 2022, tonnage was up 3.4%, which was the best annual gain since 2018.

Saudi Arabia has informed five Asian refiners that it will supply full contractual volumes of crude oil in July, five sources with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday. The world's top crude exporter has also reinstated contracted volumes of Arab Heavy crude to one buyer after cutting supplies in the previous month, one of the sources said. Last month, the state oil giant maintained full contractual supplies to Asia for June supplies by replacing Arab Heavy with Arab Light. The Arab Heavy was redirected to domestic power plants to meet the increased demand for electricity for summer cooling needs. Click Read More below for additional information.