National Average Price for Regular Unleaded Current: $3.692; Month Ago: $3.949; Year Ago: $3.191. National Average Price for Diesel Current: $4.977; Month Ago: $5.021; Year Ago: $3.299.

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index increased 0.5% in May after falling 1.4% in April. In May, the index equaled 117.1 (2015=100) versus 116.5 in April. “The transition in the freight market continued in May with the index hitting the second highest level since the pandemic started. Specifically on the market transition, ATA’s tonnage index is dominated by contract freight. The traditional spot market has slowed as freight softens, but these contract carriers are backfilling any losses in freight with loads from shippers that is reducing spot market exposure,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “Essentially the market is transitioning back to pre-pandemic shares of contract versus spot market. “Overall, economic indicators that are important to trucking slowed in May, including retail sales, housing starts, and manufacturing output,” he said. Compared with May 2021, the SA index increased 3.7%, which was the ninth straight year-over-year gain and the largest since April 2021. In April, the index was up 2.5% from a year earlier. In 2022, year-to-date and compared with same period in 2021, tonnage was up 2.7%.

Futures in New York rose as much as 1.2 percent after dropping on Monday. While U.S. inventories are forecast to have added 3.4 million barrels last week, that would mark slower growth than the prior week. OPEC and its partners, which are cutting output to ease the global glut, still expect markets to balance by about the third quarter, according to people familiar with the matter. U.S. crude inventories are at their highest since December and probably grew again last week, according to a Bloomberg survey before government data due Wednesday. While supplies are set for a fourth weekly advance, the expected increase is smaller than the 5 million-barrel gain a week earlier. Click Read More below for additional information.