AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report for Friday, 12/01/2017

National Average Price for Regular – Current: $2.458; Month Ago: $2.607; Year Ago: $2.232. National Average Price for Diesel – Current: $2.729; Month Ago: $2.720; Year Ago: $2.420.

Futures fell 2.5 percent in New York. China’s oil refining dropped the most in three years in July, while crude output retreated from the highest this year. Libya’s biggest oil field, Sharara, cut output by more than 30 percent because of security threats, a person familiar with the matter said. Meanwhile, the dollar strengthened, eroding the lure of commodities as a store of value. "We’re seeing some strength in the dollar, and the preponderance of news seems to be favoring the bears right now," Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group Inc. in Chicago, said by telephone. "If you look at the China data this morning, when it came to the China refinery runs being down in July, that’s adding to the perception of slowing demand, and it’s offsetting the concerns about Libyan oil production." Click Read More below for additional detail.

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index rose 0.6% in January after increasing 0.9% in December. In January, the index equaled 115.5 (2015=100) compared with 114.9 in December. ATA recently revised the seasonally adjusted index back five years as part of its annual revision. “January’s gain was the sixth straight totaling 4.4%,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “The index, which is dominated by contract freight with only small amounts of spot market truck freight, is off 3.9% from the all-time high in August 2019 and only 1.5% below March 2020 when the pandemic hit. In January, truck tonnage was helped by rising retail sales and factory output. While housing starts fell last month, which is another important driver of truck tonnage, it remained at high levels.”