Key Currency Exchange Rates for Friday, 2/5/21

Oil prices steadied on Friday after almost a week of sharp rises as Hurricane Irma, one of the most powerful storms in a century, drove towards Florida after tearing through the Caribbean. Irma is the second major hurricane to approach the United States in two weeks and has already killed 14, flattening whole islands. Its predecessor, Harvey, shut a quarter of U.S. refineries and 8 percent of U.S. oil production. “Hurricanes can have a lasting effect on refinery and industry demand,” said Eugen Weinberg, head of commodities research at Commerzbank in Frankfurt. “The impact of the forces of nature on U.S. oil production should not be overestimated – nor should their impact on demand be underestimated.”

Futures added 1.5 percent in New York. China’s crude imports last month jumped to the second-highest on record, customs data show, while U.S. government data on Thursday showed crude inventories fell by 2.75 million barrels last week. OPEC is said to expect a global oil glut will be gone a year from now. President Donald Trump is expected on Friday to disavow a deal with Iran that helped revive its oil exports, while stopping short of abandoning it. Oil has rebounded from the biggest weekly loss since May on signs that output cuts led by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries are draining a surplus. OPEC expects the effort to succeed by the end of the third quarter of next year, said people familiar with the group’s internal forecasts. The prediction assumes that production in Libya and Nigeria will remain at current levels and U.S. shale output will expand by no more than 500,000 barrels a day next year, two people familiar with the matter said. Click Read More below for additional information.

National Average Price for Regular Unleaded Current: $3.581; Month Ago: $3.417; Year Ago: $4.153. National Average Price for Diesel Current: $4.208; Month Ago: $4.376; Year Ago: $5.071.