Key Currency Exchange Rates for Friday, 2/12/21

Crude in New York fell 0.4 percent as traders cashed in after yesterday’s 3.1 percent surge. The oil market is nearing the end of the “lower for longer” era with a shortage likely in 2019, trading house Trafigura said Tuesday. Turkey can “close the valves” on oil shipments from Kurdistan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after the Iraqi region held a vote on independence. Oil has gained more than 10 percent this month on forecasts for rising crude demand and as members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries maintain production cuts to drain a global glut. The market rebalancing has helped flip the futures curve into backwardation, a structure where immediate deliveries of oil are more expensive than longer-dated ones, signaling strong demand. Brent prices jumped to a two-year high on Monday before retreating Tuesday. “It’s pure profit taking,” Torbjorn Kjus, oil market analyst at DNB Bank ASA said by phone. “It’s very natural. The most natural thing would be if we lose some more during the day, but so far it’s holding up almost unexpectedly well after that very large rally yesterday.” Click Read More below for more of the story.

This week the American Postal workers Union (APWU) launched a national advertising campaign to alert the public about proposed plans to privatize the public Postal Service. The ad called “Memo” highlights a document sent by Wells Fargo Equity Research to investors detailing how proposed plans by the White House to privatize postal services would lead to the closing of local post offices, skyrocketing price hikes to send a letter or package, and an end to the “Universal Service Obligation” where mail is delivered six and sometimes seven times a week to 169 million addresses.

UPS announced fourth-quarter 2023 consolidated revenues of $24.9 billion, a 7.8% decrease from the fourth quarter of 2022. Consolidated operating profit was $2.5 billion, down 22.5% compared to the fourth quarter of 2022, and down 27.1% on an adjusted basis. Diluted earnings per share were $1.87 for the quarter; adjusted diluted earnings per share of $2.47 were 31.8% below the same period in 2022. For the fourth quarter of 2023, GAAP results include a total charge of $512 million, or $0.60 per diluted share, comprised of a non-cash, after-tax mark-to-market (MTM) pension charge of $274 million, after-tax transformation and other charges of $154 million, and a non-cash, after-tax impairment charge of $84 million related to our Coyote trade name in our truckload brokerage unit.