Key Currency Exchange Rates for Friday, 5/26/23

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index increased 7.4% in December after rising 3.2% in November. In December, the index equaled 120 (2015=100) compared with 111.7 in November. “Tonnage ended last year on a high note,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “The index not only registered the largest monthly gain since June, but it also had the first year-over-year increase since March. Freight continues to be helped by strong consumption, a retail inventory restocking, and robust single-family home construction. With the stimulus checks recently issued and with a strong possibility of more in the near future, I would expect truck freight to continue rising.” November’s gain was revised down slightly to 3.2% from our December 22 press release. Compared with December 2019, the SA index rose 2.3%. For all of 2020, compared with the same 12-month period in 2019, tonnage was down 3.3%. 2019 had an annual increase of 3.3%.

National Average Price for Regular – Current: $2.358; Month Ago: $2.260; Year Ago: $2.130. National Average Price for Diesel – Current: $2.525; Month Ago: $2.444; Year Ago: $2.295.

Futures rose 0.7 percent in New York after slipping 0.2 percent on Monday. Inventories probably lost 3 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey before Energy Information Administration data Wednesday. Nigerian oil workers suspended strike action and agreed to continue talks next month, while output from a Libyan field returned to normal after a power outage. Oil has rallied the past three months as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies reduce supply to drain a global glut. The unprecedented cooperation among producers, which has now been extended until the end of 2018, has crude prices on their way to a second annual advance. Click Read More below for additional information.