Key Currency Exchange Rates for Friday, 11/03/17

National Average Price for Regular – Current: $2.481; Month Ago: $2.656; Year Ago: $2.253. National Average Price for Diesel – Current: $2.726; Month Ago: $2.717; Year Ago: $2.412.

“The U.S. oil rig count, a key indicator for trader sentiment, exhibited a rather large weekly decline,” said analysts at consultants JBC Energy GmbH in Vienna. “At least in the short term, this dynamic should help protect the downside to crude prices. The more pressing question may be how much higher prices can climb before the gravitational forces of global supply and demand can start to form an upper limit.” West Texas Intermediate for October delivery rose as much as 44 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $50.33 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and traded for $49.91 at 10:43 a.m. London time. On Sept. 14, it reached $50.50, the highest since May 25. Total volume traded was about 26 percent below the 100-day average. Click Read More below for additional detail.

Oil traded near the highest level in more than two years as political upheaval in top crude exporter Saudi Arabia reverberated through a market where prices were already elevated by signs of tightening supply. Investors have piled into oil as a shake-up of the ruling elite in OPEC’s biggest producer was seen to consolidate power with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who backs extending the group’s output cuts aimed at clearing a global glut. The purge also raised concern over instability in the kingdom, supporting a geopolitical-risk premium on crude that’s emerged with heightened tensions surrounding nations such as Iraq and Iran. Oil’s gained more than 20 percent since the beginning of September on signs global supplies are tightening and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies may prolong their output deal past March. Click Read More below for additional information.