More signs of muddle through here as rail traffic continues to come in very sluggish. This week’s intermodal reading came in at 1.7% compared to 2.5% last week. This brings the 12 week moving average to 1.73% which is pretty steady for the last three weeks.
Here’s more via AAR:
“The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported an increase in weekly rail traffic for the week ending June 15, 2013, with total U.S. weekly carloads of 288,879 carloads, up 0.5 percent compared with the same week last year. Intermodal volume for the week totaled 254,266 units, up 1.7 percent compared with the same week last year. Total U.S. traffic for the week was 543,145 carloads and intermodal units, up 1.1 percent compared with the same week last year.
Four of the 10 carload commodity groups posted increases compared with the same week in 2012, led by petroleum and petroleum products, up 35.6 percent. Commodities showing a decrease compared with the same week last year included grain, down 12.1 percent.
For the first 24 weeks of 2013, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 6,648,308 carloads, down 1.6 percent from the same point last year, and 5,767,958 intermodal units, up 3.9 percent from last year. Total U.S. traffic for the first 24 weeks of 2013 was 12,416,266 carloads and intermodal units, up 0.9 percent from last year.”
Chart via Orcam Investment Research:
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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