Key Currency Exchange Rates for Friday, 3/17/23

National Average Price for Regular – Current: $2.458; Month Ago: $2.607; Year Ago: $2.232. National Average Price for Diesel – Current: $2.729; Month Ago: $2.720; Year Ago: $2.420.

Short term, oil-pricing volatility will continue. Traders will likely consider any forward interruption – perceived or actual – in Iranian crude export flow as upward pressure on global prices. If this happens and JCPOA is not immediately closed, (i.e., should those second and third possible scenarios I mentioned play out), there will be a pullback. Overall, other factors have been contributing to an increasing floor for the oil-pricing band, supported by continuing OPEC production problems in Venezuela, Nigeria, and Libya. Click Read More below for additional information.

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index increased 0.2% in August after rising 1.1% in July. In August, the index equaled 115.3 (2015=100) compared with 115 in July. “The evidence is growing that tonnage hit bottom in April and continues its slow climb upwards,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “However, year-over-year comparisons remain difficult as tonnage peaked in September of last year. As a result, it is unlikely that tonnage turns positive compared with a year earlier for at least a month or two longer. Most recently, freight continues to be mixed, with consumer spending and factory output flat to down.” July’s increase was revised higher from our August 22 press release. Compared with August 2022, the SA index fell 2.3%, which was the sixth straight year-over-year decrease. In July, the index was down 1.2% from a year earlier.