Key Currency Exchange Rates for Friday, 7/10/20

American Dollar to Canadian Dollar = 0.815026; American Dollar to Chinese Yuan = 0.154635; American Dollar to Euro = 1.208318; American Dollar to Japanese Yen = 0.009180; American Dollar to Mexican Peso = 0.049846.

The market “looks a lot more bullish than it did three or four months ago,” said James Williams, president of London, Arkansas-based energy researcher WTRG Economics. The stockpile declines aren’t surprising since “refinery utilization is coming down this time of year because it’s turnaround season,” he said. Nonetheless, he predicted prices will rally again Wednesday if the government confirms the drops. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is expected to extend supply cuts beyond their March expiration date, which has supported oil above the key $50-a-barrel psychological threshold. In addition, oil demand is proving more resilient than some expected, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy and Industry Khalid Al-Falih said in Riyadh. Stockpiles at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for New York-traded futures contracts, probably declined by 500,000 barrels, according to a separate forecast compiled by Bloomberg. A Bloomberg survey estimated that U.S crude stockpiles slid by 3 million barrels last week, while gasoline stockpiles probably rose by 1.7 million barrels. The API report also showed crude stockpiles rose by 519,000 barrels, while Cushing supplies fell by 55,000 barrels last week. A draw at Cushing would be the first since August if the Energy Information Administration confirms it in its data release on Wednesday. Click Read More below for additional information.

The immediate future of the global supply chain rests on a bargaining table in San Francisco, where the union representing all West Coast dockworkers is hashing out a new contract with the assembled bosses of maritime shipping. The current contract, which covers the International Longshore and Warehouse Union’s more than 22,000 workers at the 29 ports dotting the Pacific coast of the U.S., is set to expire July 1. At stake is the continuing flow of goods into the country, after two years of disruptions to the supply chain from pandemic lockdowns, material shortages, soaring fuel prices and the occasional giant ship getting stuck in the Suez Canal. Forty percent of all U.S. maritime imports pass through the West Coast ports, with more than 30% of all containerized imports arriving at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which together make up the nation’s largest port complex.