National Average Price for Regular Unleaded Current: $3.184; Month Ago: $3.182; Year Ago: $2.232. National Average Price for Diesel Current: $3.290; Month Ago: $3.289; Year Ago: $2.429.

Futures were little changed in New York after tumbling 2.9 percent Wednesday, the biggest daily drop since Oct. 6. Motor-fuel stockpiles rose by 6.78 million barrels last week for a fourth weekly advance, according to Energy Information Administration data. That’s more than double the most bearish estimate in a Bloomberg survey. U.S. oil output increased to a record. U.S. crude inventories fell by 5.61 million barrels last week, the EIA reported Wednesday. Oil production expanded for a seventh week to 9.7 million barrels a day, the highest level in weekly data compiled by the EIA since 1983. Click Read More below for additional information.

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.”