Another week, another decent rail report. This data is still consistent with a growing economy, but not a healthy growing economy. Muddle through continues (via the AAR):
“The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today reported a gain in weekly rail traffic, with U.S. railroads originating 302,500 carloads for the week ending October 8, 2011, up 2.1 percent compared with the same week last year. Intermodal volume for the week totaled 241,999 trailers and containers, up 2.4 percent compared with the same week last year.
Eleven of the 20 carload commodity groups posted increases from the comparable week in 2010, including: petroleum products, up 28.3 percent; non-metallic minerals, up 19.6 percent; and motor vehicles and equipment, up 11.1 percent. Groups showing a decrease in weekly traffic included: farm products excluding grain, down 14.6 percent; and waste and nonferrous scrap, down 11.5 percent.
Weekly carload volume on Eastern railroads was up 2.2 percent compared with the same week last year. In the West, weekly carload volume was up 2.1 percent compared with the same week in 2010.
For the first 40 weeks of 2011, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 11,631,650 carloads, up 1.8 percent from the same point last year, and 9,123,225 trailers and containers, up 5.4 percent from last year.”
Source: AAR
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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