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National Average Price Per Gallon: $3.086
Crude oil prices fell globally. Brent crude traded at $67.07 per barrel today (down 0.8%), while U.S. crude traded at $63.62 (down 0.86%).
But instead of showing concern, analysts felt that the petroleum market is “rebalancing” itself after many oil producers agreed to limit their output.
BP CEO Bob Dudley said that previous prices of $70 per barrel “felt a little bit [too] high.”
Framing lumber: $481
Panels/plywood: $493
Trading of framing lumber products slowed somewhat last week, but not enough to stop prices from continuing to climb. The prices of some individual products reached record highs.
Prices for structural panel products also continued to climb. Just like last week, the price of many individual products posted double-digit increases.
On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the job numbers for January.
Overall, the Bureau reported good news. The economy added 200,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate remained at 4.1%. Hiring trended upward in construction, food services and drinking places, health care, and manufacturing.
Even better, wages rose through January by 2.9%. this follows the predictions of many economic analysts, who have been predicting for some months that low unemployment and a tight job market would start to push wages higher in 2018.
Sources: Random Lengths, EIA, Bureau of Labor Statistics, CNBC
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