Key Currency Exchange Rates for Friday, 6/15/18

Crude oil prices rose but backed away from multi-year highs on Wednesday after U.S. government data showed an increase in fuel inventories and a falloff in refining activity. A broad, global market rally, including stocks, has also been fueling investment into crude oil futures, but analysts warned of possible overheating. U.S. crude inventories fell 4.9 million barrels last week, more than the 3.9-million decline forecast, but bigger-than-expected builds in gasoline and fuel stocks offset that drawdown, the Energy Information Administration reported. Click Read More below for additional information.

Futures in New York increased 0.6 percent after a 1.9 percent drop on Tuesday. U.S. crude inventories rose 3.43 million barrels last week, the American Petroleum Institute was said to report. That compares with a 1.23 million-barrel gain in a Bloomberg poll of analysts ahead of Wednesday’s government data. The oil market has priced in a more than 50 percent probability that the U.S. will sanction Iran, according to Standard Chartered Plc. If the API’s stockpiles data is reflected in the government announcement, it would be the biggest build since early March. The industry body was also said to show crude inventories in the American oil-storage hub of Cushing, Oklahoma, rose by 725,000 barrels last week. Gasoline stocks increased by 1.6 million barrels while distillates declined 4.08 million. Click Read More below for additional information.

Carbon aerogels are ultralight, conductive materials, which are extensively investigated for applications in supercapacitor electrodes in electrical cars and cell phones. Chinese scientists have now found a way to make these electrodes sustainably. The aerogels can be obtained directly from cellulose nanofibrils, the abundant cell-wall material in wood, finds the study reported in the journal Angewandte Chemie. Supercapacitors are capacitors that can take up and release a very large amount of energy in a very short time. Key requirements for supercapacitor electrodes are a large surface area and conductivity, combined with a simple production method. Another growing issue in supercapacitor production—mainly for smartphone and electric car technologies—is sustainability. However, sustainable and economical production of carbon aerogels as supercapacitor electrode materials is possible, propose Shu-Hong Yu and colleagues from the University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China. Click Read More below for additional information.