Key Currency Exchange Rates for Friday, 5/28/21

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index decreased 0.7% in May after falling 0.6% in April. In May, the index equaled 113.7 (2015=100) compared with 114.5 in April. “Tonnage, despite falling slightly over the last two months, remains well above the lows of last year,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “This is no small deal considering that truck tonnage fell significantly less than many other indicators during the depths of the pandemic in the spring of 2020. “One freight segment that is helping tonnage is gasoline as demand for travel, both commuting and vacation related, picks up,” he said. “I’m also expecting retail freight to remain robust as inventories are at historic lows. As retail stocks are rebuilt, it will boost freight. As has been the case for some time, trucking’s biggest challenges are not on the demand side, but on the supply side, including difficulty finding qualified drivers.”

Oil prices were mixed on Tuesday, with U.S. crude gaining and Brent crude slumping, as investors prepared for a key meeting of the OPEC producer group next week. Crude future were in line with the broader financial markets, which were largely unruffled by a U.S.-North Korea summit aimed at the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. OPEC and other producing countries including Russia have cut oil output by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) since January 2017 in an effort to boost the market. The group holds its next meeting on June 22-23, and is expected to decide on future supply policy. Click Read More below for additional information.

National Average Price for Regular Unleaded Current: $4.599; Month Ago: $4.134; Year Ago: $3.041. National Average Price for Diesel Current: $5.530; Month Ago: $5.093; Year Ago: $3.179.