Operations

Freight, rates and the economy

May 1, 2015

Highlights from this week’s American Trucker Money Roll report include U.S. GDP coming in with very low growth for the first quarter, consumer confidence crashing in April, and Wall Street thinking truckload capacity is loosening up. Real gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annual rate of 0.2% in the first quarter of 2015, according to the advance estimate from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the slowest growth since the decline in GDP in the first quarter last year.The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, which had increased in March, declined in April. The Index now stands at 95.2 (1985=100), down from 101.4 in March. The Present Situation Index decreased from 109.5 last month to 106.8 in April. The Expectations Index declined from 96.0 last month to 87.5 in April.The analysts at Wolf Research LLC downgraded their trucking sector weighting from Market Weight to Market Underweight this week, and lowered their investor ratings on most of the truckload carriers they follow.The number of available loads on the spot truckload market decreased 2.4% and capacity increased 4.5% during the week ending April 25, according to DAT Solutions, which operates the DAT network of load boards.U.S. rail traffic for the week ending April 25 was down 1.6 percent compared with the same week last year, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported.Every week American Trucker breaks down freight, rates and the economy with a compilation of slides that include graphs and charts.