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Consumer inflation eases year over year but remains a big concern.

• Merchant wholesaler sales, inventories edge higher.
• Flatbed pulls down spot metrics, but rates were sluggish in all segments.
• Intermodal volumes decline due to weakness in the west; grain bolstered rail carload traffic.
• Potential railroad labor disruptions are pushed out to December.

GDP rises in Q3, but the goods transport economy fades

• New orders for core capital goods see largest decrease since May 2021.
• Sales of new homes fall in September after August’s surprising increase.
• The trucking spot market sees volume growth, mostly stable rates in the latest week.
• Railroad labor issues return to the spotlight.

Industrial production and manufacturing output see gains in September.

• Housing starts fall but remain above 2019 levels.
• Diesel prices continue to rise as distillate inventories are still very low.
• Truck spot metrics generally move seasonally while West Coast volume is lowest since May 2020.
• Intermodal volumes hold steady as harvest drives up rail carload volume.

New orders for core capital goods show solid gain in August.

• Sales of new homes surprise with a sharp rebound.
• Real spending on goods declines as real spending on services ticks higher.
• CDL driver hiring activity in August was the strongest of the pandemic.
• Intermodal shows no volume improvement in week following rail strike scare.

Housing starts rise as multi-family construction hits an all-time high.

• Sales of existing homes fall for the seventh straight month.
• Industrial production dips due to weaker utilities output.
• Worries about a possible rail strike failed to bolster the trucking spot market.
• Uncertainty over the averted rail strike shows up mostly in weaker intermodal volume.

• Falling fuel prices hit merchant wholesaler sales in July.
• Diesel prices ease while crude sinks to its lowest price since January.
• Mortgage rates rise to the highest level since November 2008.
• Spot rates rise in key trucking segments heading into the Labor Day holiday.

The U.S. economy adds 678,000 payroll jobs in February.

•Crude, diesel prices soar in the wake of the war in Ukraine.
•Retail inventories see another solid increase.
•The surge in new trucking companies continues in February.
•Volatility is the order of the day for rail volumes.