More of the same in this week’s rail data. Carloads were up modestly and intermodal posted another decent positive figure at 4.8%. The 10 week moving average now sits at 4.1%. Overall, this data is not consistent with past recessionary environments and is actually surprisingly strong given the large declines in some commodity groups. The AAR has this week’s deatils on the data:
“The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today reported gains in weekly rail traffic for the week ending June 23, 2012, with U.S. railroads originating 288,730 carloads, up 1.4 percent compared with the same week last year. Intermodal volume for the week totaled 246,128 trailers and containers, up 4.8 percent compared with the same week last year.
Eleven of the 20 carload commodity groups posted increases compared with the same week in 2011, with petroleum products, up 51.4 percent; motor vehicles and equipment, up 27.8 percent, and lumber and wood products, up 17.1 percent. The groups showing a decrease in weekly traffic included metallic ore, down 29.3 percent, and iron and steel scrap, down 14.2 percent.
Weekly carload volume on Eastern railroads was even compared with the same week last year. In the West, weekly carload volume was up 2.3 percent compared with the same week in 2011.
For the first 25 weeks of 2012, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 7,046,184 carloads, down 2.9 percent from the same point last year, and 5,796,233 trailers and containers, up 3.2 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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