New Year, not so New Market

The new year roared in somewhat uneventful in the commodities market. The markets seemed to be finding a stride, finding their way back to fundamentals and technical data while straying from a 2-year pattern of extreme volatility. 2023 seemed like it was going to yield markets that would follow norms, the usual prior to February […]

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Crude Oil Crushed

WTI Crude oil prices topped $93.50/barrel on Monday and now trading at $86.21/barrel at writing. Why the significant drop? Let’s look at the fundamentals and the technical for an explanation. From the fundamental perspective, China re-affirmed its stance this week on its zero-COVID policy strategy that when a few cases are confirmed, a lockdown of […]

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That’s a wrap on the holiday season

With known supply chain issues plaguing holiday shoppers, many shopped early to acquire the hot holiday gifts.  Mastercard SpendingPulse called 2021 a “resurgent season for retailers” for the holiday season that runs from November 1 to December 24.  Retail sales, excluding automotive, increased 8.5% in comparison with 2020.  Online sales grew 11% from the same […]

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Driver Availability Sees Considerable Improvement

Over the pandemic, the United States saw a drastic driver shortage in the logistics industry, but the industry should see more drivers available soon. There has been an increase in the available driver pool, partially because most drivers will be exempt from the new Covid-19 vaccine mandate. It seems that only the team drivers and […]

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U.S. Lifts Travel Ban to International Travelers

The U.S. has plans to lift foreign air travel bans beginning in November, opening travel for all vaccinated citizens of foreign nations. A year ago, the Trump administration closed off air travel for any non-citizens from areas such as Britain and the European Union to attempt to minimize some of the spread of the coronavirus.

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Delta Variant Causing Demand Decline?

Today marks the longest stretch of daily declines in oil prices since 2019 as concern continues to grow about global energy demand.  West Texas Intermediate (WTI) dropped for the seventh day this week leading to a weekly loss of 7.3%. Oil prices took a hit this month caused by speculation that the Federal Reserve will […]

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Port Shutdowns Amid Delta Variant Concerns

Today marks the sixth day in a row that the world’s third busiest container port remains partially closed.  China’s Ningbo-Zhoushan container port shut down their Meishan terminal last Wednesday after one of their employees tested positive for COVID-19.  Ningbo authorities stated that the port worker was believed to be fully vaccinated but received an inactivated […]

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CRUDE SLIDES AMID DEMAND AND SUPPLY CONCERNS

China’s economic outlook and the Delta variant tanker were the most recent forces that led to crudes slip to open the month of August. Brent crude at writing was lower by 2.02% at $73.89/bbl while WTI slipped 2.31% and fell to $72.24/bbl. In mid-July OPEC+ met to discuss growing demand and supply increases. After some […]

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Blended Approach in the Trucking Industry

As COVID-19 slows down and we return to semi-normal, will the trucking industry return to their pre-pandemic training procedures as well? Driver training pre- COVID-19 was your typical in person event where drivers gathered in one location, had face-to-face training for days on end and then were able to begin their job. COVID-19 forced companies […]

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