AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report for Friday, 9/29/23

American Dollar to Canadian Dollar = 0.718712; American Dollar to Chinese Yuan = 0.138111; American Dollar to Euro = 1.125021; American Dollar to Japanese Yen = 0.006883; American Dollar to Mexican Peso = 0.051232.

Futures rose 0.5 percent in New York after slipping a second session Tuesday. Inventories dropped by 9.2 million barrels last week, the American Petroleum Institute was said to report. If that is replicated in government data Wednesday, it would be the largest drop in almost a year. Output from Libya is rebounding as its biggest field boosts production and a port reopens. OPEC won’t clear the global glut any time soon since any increase in price continues to bolster rival production from U.S. shale, according to the International Energy Agency. 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.”