More signs of muddle through here as weekly rail traffic comes in pretty stagnant again. This week’s intermodal reading was 2.5% year over year which brings the 12 week moving average to 1.64%. That’s the lowest level since the first week of January and clearly not a sign of a robust economy.
Here’s more via AAR:
“The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported mixed traffic for the week ending June 8, 2013, with total U.S. weekly carloads of 278,249 carloads, down 2.8 percent compared with the same week last year. Intermodal volume for the week totaled 252,641 units, up 2.5 percent compared with the same week last year. Total U.S. traffic for the week was 530,890 carloads and intermodal units, down 0.3 percent compared with the same week last year.
Five of the 10 carload commodity groups posted increases compared with the same week in 2012, led by petroleum and petroleum products, up 27.8 percent. Commodities showing a decrease compared with the same week last year included grain, down 22.5 percent.
For the first 23 weeks of 2013, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 6,359,429 carloads, down 1.7 percent from the same point last year, and 5,513,692 intermodal units, up 4 percent from last year. Total U.S. traffic for the first 23 weeks of 2013 was 11,873,121 carloads and intermodal units, up 0.9 percent from last year.”
Chart via Orcam Investment Research:
Mr. Roche is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Discipline Funds.Discipline Funds is a low fee financial advisory firm with a focus on helping people be more disciplined with their finances.
He is also the author of Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Understand About Money and Finance, Understanding the Modern Monetary System and Understanding Modern Portfolio Construction.
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