Freight Futures contracts to watch today: March (Spot) Futures Prices
Though the U.S. equity markets rebounded on Monday from last week’s selloff, downward pressure remains on the Trucking Freight Futures markets. Monday was also the first trading session where March was the spot month futures contract. The March National contract (FUT.VNU202003) fell $0.014, or 1%, on the day to $1.383/mile. This is $0.021 higher than where the February contract (FUT.VNU202002) ceased trading on Friday. The East regional contract (FUT.VEU202003) ended the session $0.011 (0.7%) lower to $1.526, the West regional contract (FUT.VWU202003) closed down by 0.6% to $1.417 and the South regional contract (FUT.VSU202003) settled down $0.022, or 1.8% lower to $1.206. Despite trading lower on the day, the contracts all settled higher than where their respective February predecessors ceased trading on Friday (see the continuous futures spot price (FUTC1) chart below).
In the East, the ATL to PHL contract (FUT.VAP202003) closed down $0.034 (1.9%) to $1.799 but is still at a $0.128 premium to February. Both the CHI to ATL (FUT.VCA202003) and the PHL to CHI (FUT.VPC202003) are at steep discounts to February after the roll and finishing the day 0.11% lower and 0.4% higher, respectively to $1.768 and $1.012. In the West, the LAX to SEA contract (FUT.VLS202003) ended the session $0.018 (0.9%) lower to $1.944 and remains at a $0.021 premium over February. The SEA to LAX contract (FUT.VSL202003) ended Monday higher by 0.23% to $0.089, a $0.017 discount to February. In the South, both contracts are at least a $0.043 premium to February, even after closing lower on Monday. The LAX to DAL contract (FUT.VLD202003) slid $0.029 (2.1%) to $1.357 while the DAL to LAX contract (FUT.VDL202003) slipped $0.015 (1.4%) to $1.055.
