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Weekly Transportation Update: September Strong for Production and Manufacturing


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.
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Weekly Transportation Update: New Home Sales Surprise with a Sharp Rebound


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.
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Weekly Transportation Update: Production Dips Due to Weaker Utilities Output


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.
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Weekly Transportation Update: Falling Fuel Prices Hit Wholesalers Hard

  • 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.
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Morning Coffee: Stocks Week Ends on Down Note

U.S. stocks closed out the trading week on a down note on Friday, as earlier gains that showed a jobs report suggested that the tight labor market may loosen.
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Electric Engines: The Future is Here

This is the beginning of a series of articles on electric vehicles. This is not meant to be an engineering series but a more general look that focuses on the broader history, the present situation, future uses, and potential problems of the new “Electric Age.”

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Morning Coffee: Wall Street Ends Lower in Three Major Indexes

Wall Street ended Friday with all 3 major indexes more than 3% lower, as Federal Reserve Chief Jerome Powell’s signal that the central bank would keep on hiking rates to tame inflation nixed hopes for a more modest path among investors.
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The Economy: Recession? Or a Near Miss?

FTR Expert Steve Graham takes a look at how close we are to a recession and whether we could avoid it entirely.

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2022 Mid-Year Look Around

FTR Expert Steve Graham weighs in on how things look economically as we reach the halfway point of 2022.

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Insights: Coal Industry

Coal will continue to be a significant commodity for railroads in the immediate future, but it will never return to the dominant position that it held in the twentieth century.
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