Key Currency Exchange Rates for Friday, 7/05/24

Oil prices fell for a fourth session on Wednesday after the U.S. government reported an unexpected increase in crude and gasoline stockpiles, but an increase in refining runs and a drawdown in distillates helped prices bounce off session lows. Prices also remained under pressure from this week's International Energy Agency (IEA) outlook for slower growth in global crude demand. While the crude build of 1.9 million barrels reported by the Energy Information Administration was more than forecast, it was not as big as the increase of 6.5 million barrels reported on Tuesday by industry group the American Petroleum Institute. The EIA data encouraged buying at session lows. Click Read More below for additional information.

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index declined 1.2% in April after decreasing 2.2% in March. In April, the index equaled 111.7 (2015=100) compared with 113.1 in March. “The truck freight market remained soft in April as seasonally adjusted volumes fell for the second straight month,” said American Trucking Associations Chief Economist Bob Costello. “With a rebound in freight remaining elusive, it is likely that additional capacity will leave the industry in the face of continued softness in the market.” March’s decrease was revised down slightly from our April 23 press release. Compared with April 2023, the index fell 1.5%, which was the fourteenth straight year-over-year decline. In March, the index was down 1.3% from a year earlier.

Futures in New York were little changed, putting them on course for a 2.8 percent drop in February. An industry report was said to show U.S. oil inventories rose last week, which would be the fourth expansion in five weeks if confirmed in government data. The head of OPEC plans to dine with shale producers in Houston next week at a time when America is pumping at record levels and threatening the group’s efforts to curb a global glut. U.S. crude output is forecast to rise to a record level in February, stoking fears that shale producers may derail OPEC’s strategy of reducing output to clear a global glut. The producer group’s Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo said he will meet with U.S. shale company executives for dinner on Monday in Houston, the second time he has met with some of the cartel’s top rivals.