Six companies bought 14 million barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a sale required by law to help fund medical research and the federal government, said the Department of Energy on Thursday. BP Oil Supply, Exxon Mobil Corp, Phillips 66, Shell Trading, Valero Marketing and Supply Company, and Macquarie Commodities Trading bought oil from the reserve, which is held in salt caverns on the Texas and Louisiana coasts. The companies bought the oil at a range from $46.98 to $47.91 a barrel, slightly below the current futures price of about $49.70 per barrel, depending on which location the crude came from and whether it was sent by pipeline or directly to vessels, which could export the petroleum.

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index fell 5.4% in March after increasing 0.9% in February. In March, the index equaled 111.6 (2015=100) compared with 118 in February. “After increasing a total of 2.6% during the three previous months, March’s sequential decline was the largest monthly drop since April 2020 during the start of the pandemic,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “Falling home construction, decreasing factory output and soft retail sales all hurt contract freight tonnage – which dominates ATA’s tonnage index – during the month. Despite the largest year-over-year drop since October 2020, contract freight remains more robust than the spot market, which continues to see prolonged weakness.” Compared with March 2022, the SA index decreased 5%, which was the first year-over-year decrease since August 2021. In February, the index was up 1.9% from a year earlier. During the first quarter, tonnage was 0.6% below the same three month period in 2022.

Futures in New York were little changed Friday and poised for a 3.7 percent weekly gain after the greenback slumped to a three-year low. A rebound in stocks from the U.S. to Asia is also boosting confidence the markets are stabilizing. West Texas Intermediate for March delivery added 7 cents to $61.41 on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 6:13 a.m. local time. Total volume traded was about 31 percent above the 100-day average. Brent for April settlement climbed 19 cents to trade at $64.52 on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The global benchmark traded at a $3.22 premium to WTI for the same month.