Key Currency Exchange Rates for Friday, 9/17/21

National Average Price for Regular Unleaded Current: $3.797; Month Ago: $3.844; Year Ago: $3.189. National Average Price for Diesel Current: $4.876; Month Ago: $5.073; Year Ago: $3.331.

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index increased 2.4% in September after rising 0.3% in August. In September, the index equaled 112.9 (2015=100) compared with 110.2 in August. “September’s sequential gain was the largest in 2021,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “It is good that tonnage rose in September, but it is important to note that this is happening because each truck is hauling more, not from an increase in the amount of equipment operated as contract carriers in the for-hire truckload market continue to shrink from the lack of new trucks and drivers. “The drivers of truck freight, including retail, construction, and manufacturing, plus a surge in imports, are helping keep demand high for trucking services,” he said.

Oil prices were set on Friday to post their first weekly decline in three weeks following a sell-off in global stock markets after news of planned U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminium raised fears of a trade war. U.S. crude is on track for a 4.5 percent drop this week, its first weekly decline in three, having given up much of the gains in recent weeks when sentiment was boosted by a fall in inventories at the Cushing delivery point for WTI. Click Read More below for additional information.