A smaller-scale construction of the Sphere entertainment venue in Las Vegas may soon be taking shape across the Potomac River from the nation’s capital. Sphere Entertainment Co., the State of Maryland, Prince George’s County, and Peterson Companies recently announced their intent to develop a new Sphere venue at National Harbor, a premier destination in the Washington, D.C. Metro. It will be just the second Sphere in the U.S., and first to utilize a smaller-scale design model. It will hold 6,000 seats, making it about one-third the size of the Las Vegas Sphere.

Oil steadied above $62 a barrel on Tuesday as expectations of a drop in U.S. crude inventories and prolonged supply curbs by OPEC and other producers countered rising output in the United States. An OPEC-led producer group last week extended a supply-cutting deal through 2018, but the resulting support for prices could bolster U.S. output which climbed to nearly 9.5 million barrels per day in September. An OPEC-led producer group last week extended a supply-cutting deal through 2018, but the resulting support for prices could bolster U.S. output which climbed to nearly 9.5 million barrels per day in September. Click Read More below for additional information.

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index increased 2.1% in December after falling 1.4% in November. In December, the index equaled 115.7 (2015=100) compared with 113.3 in November. “While 2023 ended on a better note, truck tonnage remained in a recession as it continued to fall on a year-over-year basis,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “With that said, for-hire contract freight, which is what comprises our index, in December was 2.6% above the trough in April. For the entire year, tonnage contracted 1.7% from 2022 levels. This makes 2023 the worst annual reading since 2020 when the index fell 4% from 2019, and the only year since 2020 that tonnage contracted.” Compared with December 2022, the SA index fell 0.5%, which was the tenth straight year-over-year decrease, albeit the smallest over that period. In November, the index was down 1.6% from a year earlier.