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

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index rose 0.7% in January after increasing 1% in December. In January, the index equaled 117.1 (2015=100) compared with 116.2 in December. ATA recently revised the seasonally adjusted index back five years as part of its annual revision. “Tonnage has increased nicely in the last couple of months,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “I suspect that some of the gain is attributable to capacity coming out of the network, especially those carriers that primarily operate in the spot market and/or bought expensive used equipment in the last couple of years. This would push more freight to contract carriers, which dominate this index. "It could also be that freight bottomed and is coming up a little too. So, the gain is likely a little higher demand and a little less supply. Despite the increases in December and January, tonnage is still off 1.4% from its recent high in September," Costello said.

Futures in New York rose 2.9 percent on Wednesday. An Energy Information Administration report showed shrinking American petroleum surpluses and the first crude withdrawal from the largest U.S. storage complex in six weeks. The U.S. draw-downs underlined optimism that an OPEC-led effort to curb global supplies will be reinforced later this week when the cartel and allied producers gather in Saudi Arabia. The EIA reported U.S. crude stockpiles dropped 1.07 million barrels last week, while supplies at the Cushing, Oklahoma, pipeline hub dropped by 1.12 million. Gasoline supplies fell 2.97 million barrels and distillate stocks slid 3.11 million barrels to the lowest level since November. 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.”