Freight Futures markets to watch today: National and Regional Markets
The Trucking Freight Futures markets are stuck in a bit of a rut with rates trending in a pattern of general weakness outside of the East. The spot National contract (FUT.VNU201912) closed fractionally lower to $1.495/mile and was mostly influenced by continued weakness in the West and South regions. The West regional contract (FUT.VWU201912) also closed down a fraction to $1.646 and the South regional contract (FUT.VSU201912) was off 0.4% to $1.313. The East regional contract (FUT.VEU201912) inched higher on the day to $1.527. Looking at the chart below, the forward curves for the National and three regional contracts (FWD) point to a somewhat more choppy yet flat to lower rate environment through 2020 and into 2021 when overlayed with the historical DAT index values (DATVF) for the futures contracts.
On the individual lanes, the story is very much the same as it has been over the past few trading sessions. In the East, the ATL to PHI contract (FUT.VAP201912) ended the session 0.42% higher to $1.686 as did the PHI to CHI contract (FUT.VPC201912), which settled up 0.21% to $0.967. The CHI to ATL contract (FUT.VCA201912) was unchanged at $1.929. In the West, the LAX to SEA contract (FUT.VLS201912) settled flat on the day at $2.057 while the SEA to LAX contract (FUT.VSL201912) dipped 0.4% to $1.234. In the South, both contracts finished lower with the LAX to DAL contract (FUT.VLD201912) off 0.31% to $1.62 and the DAL to LAX contract (FUT.VDL201912) down 0.4% to $1.006.
SONAR Tickers: DATVF.VNU, FWD.VNU, DATVF.VEU, FWD.VEU, DATVF.VWU, FWD.VWU, DATVF.VSU, FWD.VSU