Rail traffic remains soft this week as intermodal traffic comes in at just 1.4%. This brings the 12 week moving average down to 2.2% which is still expanding, but well off the highs seen earlier this year. Overall, this looks consistent with a sluggish, but growing economy.
Here’s more via AAR:
“AAR also reported mixed rail traffic for the week ending May 25, 2013, with total U.S. weekly carloads of 281,727 carloads, down 3.3 percent compared with the same week last year. Intermodal volume for the week totaled 248,210 units, up 1.4 percent compared with the same week last year. Total U.S. traffic for the week was 529,937 carloads and intermodal units, down 1.1 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 28.7 percent. Commodities showing a decrease compared with the same week last year included grain, down 21.8 percent, and metallic ores and metals, down 10.5 percent.
For the first 21 weeks of 2013, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 5,811,904 carloads, down 1.8 percent from the same point last year, and 5,039,245 intermodal units, up 4.1 percent from last year. Total U.S. traffic for the first 21 weeks of 2013 was 10,851,149 carloads and intermodal units, up 0.8 percent from last year.”
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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