Key Currency Exchange Rates for Friday, 2/16/18

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.

American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear urged Congress to take steps to exercise oversight over the implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, ensuring that taxpayers and the supply chain get the maximum return on the $1.2 trillion of investment the legislation provides. “For 90 years, the ATA has helped Congress shape its understanding of our nation’s infrastructure needs and supply chain challenges and today’s oversight of both is welcome and timely,” Spear said. “Prior to IIJA’s passage, ATA testified 25 times before the House and Senate, sharing how the decaying state of our nation’s infrastructure is hamstringing America’s ability to compete with rising global powers, like China. In short, a first-world economy cannot survive a developing-world infrastructure.”

Futures in New York rose as much as 1.3 percent after climbing the most in eight months on Tuesday. President Donald Trump has intensified preparations for a response to a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria, a move that could place the U.S. in direct conflict with Russian forces. While the Middle East country’s own oil production is limited, prices often respond to the risk of war in a region that holds almost half of the world’s crude reserves. “The focus is on the West’s probable military strike against the Syrian regime,” said Carsten Fritsch and Eugen Weinberg, analysts at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt. Click Read More below for additional information.