John’s Blog

11-10-09

Dear Friends,

The up and down stroke of good and bad news from the media is driving behavior. Housing sales are improving yet we hear that it will be a long time until they recover. We know fuel prices have increased for the last five weeks and then they dropped.

Now the Department of Energy is telling us to expect $3.00 diesel fuel for 2010.

The stock market is going nuts yet there continues to be a feel of doom on Main Street. Manufacturing is slowly picking up and people are optimistic that things will get better in 2010. After all, the PMI Index of Manufacturing did jump by 3.1% in October for the highest rate of growth in three years.

Just released, the AMB Property Survey of 350 companies shows that while negative industrial real estate absorption is expected in the fourth quarter, the market is expected to recover next year with absorption rates increasing from the present lows.

My crystal ball isn’t any better than yours but my sense of things are for a slow recovery next year. Between a continued tight lending market and historic levels of unemployment it is going to take a while.

In the mean time don’t hesitate to contact me if there is any transportation, distribution warehousing, or fulfillment projects on your horizon. We have capacity in many of our facilities and look forward to working with you through this chorus of positive and negative news.

Best regards,

John