Key Currency Exchange Rates for Friday, 10/13/17

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index increased 2.4% in March after rising 0.7% in February. In March, the index equaled 118.8 (2015=100) versus 116.1 in February. “It is important to note that ATA’s for-hire tonnage data is dominated by contract freight with minimal amounts of spot market loads,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “And clearly contract freight was solid in March, witnessing the largest sequential gain since May 2020. March was also the eighth straight month-to-month improvement, with a total increase of 7.4% over that period. “During the first quarter, the index rose 2.4% from the final quarter of 2021 and increased 2.6% from a year earlier. While there might be some recent softness in the spot market, for-hire contract freight tonnage remains solid and is only limited by lack of capacity—both drivers and equipment—at contract fleets.”

Futures climbed as much as 1.7 percent in New York, paring Wednesday’s 4.1 percent loss. Crude and gasoline inventories both dropped by more than by 5.5 million barrels last week, the American Petroleum Institute was said to report. Government data Thursday is also forecast to show supplies fell. Oil remains in a bear market amid concerns that rising supply from Libya to the U.S. will counter production cuts from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners including Russia. American crude stockpiles are more than 100 million barrels above the five-year average. Click Read More below for additional detail.

American Dollar to Canadian Dollar = 0.803578 American Dollar to Chinese Yuan = 0.152452; American Dollar to Euro = 1.192098; American Dollar to Japanese Yen = 0.009080; American Dollar to Mexican Peso = 0.056014.