Arrivederci Ralph DeLetto

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index rose 1.2% in February after increasing 0.6% in January. In February, the index equaled 118.4 (2015=100) compared with 117 in January. “Tonnage has increased sequentially for the last three months totaling 2.9 percent,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “As a result, the index is just 0.3 percent below the recent high in September. The fact that our index is growing sequentially and on a year-over-year basis demonstrates that contract freight continues to hold up at high levels. “Looking ahead, we continue to see evidence the inventory cycle is improving, which means bloated stocks will stop being a headwind and eventually help truck freight volumes,” Costello said. “Increased infrastructure spending will also boost volumes heading into the summer months. However, we expect to see continued freight softness related to lower home construction and slowing factory output.” Compared with February 2022, the SA index increased 2.3%, which was the eighteenth straight year-over-year gain, but the largest since October. In January, the index was up 1.4% from a year earlier. In 2022, compared with the average in 2021, tonnage was up 3.5%.

“The U.S. oil rig count, a key indicator for trader sentiment, exhibited a rather large weekly decline,” said analysts at consultants JBC Energy GmbH in Vienna. “At least in the short term, this dynamic should help protect the downside to crude prices. The more pressing question may be how much higher prices can climb before the gravitational forces of global supply and demand can start to form an upper limit.” West Texas Intermediate for October delivery rose as much as 44 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $50.33 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and traded for $49.91 at 10:43 a.m. London time. On Sept. 14, it reached $50.50, the highest since May 25. Total volume traded was about 26 percent below the 100-day average. Click Read More below for additional detail.