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John’s Blog
3-1-10
Dear Friends,
As we look at the events of the past
week there is some positive news as well as continued weakness in the
economy that affects transportation and logistics.
The mood of the consumer is pretty bad
as the Conference Board reports consumer confidence dropped to its
lowest level since April of 2009. The rating fell from 56.5 in
January to 46 in February according to Reuters. It is reported that
concerns over job losses is the main culprit for the consumers bad
mood.
It should be no surprise then that
Consumer spending is still weak. The 4th quarter spending
rose at an annual rate of 1.7% compared to 2.8% in the 3rd
quarter. The 3rd quarter results were skewed by the
governments “cash for clunkers” program.
There should be reporting released any
day now that tells us how retail sales were in February but it is not
expected to be great news.
The Department of Commerce reported
last week that new orders for durable goods increased by 3% in
January driven by aircraft orders. When this is taken into
consideration the news is less good as without transportation
equipment sales, the level of new orders actually dropped 0.6% in
January.
On the world stage, trade volumes rose
for the fourth straight month in December. The Netherlands Bureau
for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) reported that trade volumes
increased 4.8% from November. After the disaster in world trade at
the end of 2008 and first half of 2010 international trade is showing
signs of a strong rebound.
The American Trucking Association said
that US truck tonnage rose 5.7% in January when compared to January
of 09. This is the second straight monthly year over year increase.
All of the signs are present for a continued slow gain in the
transportation sector.
At Wagner we continue to work with
clients in their distribution center and transportation projects. If
there are any spot or on-going projects on your plate please feel
free to give me a call. We would love to see if we can drive value
into your project.
Have a great week!
John
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