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John’s Blog
7-5-10
Dear Friends,
The economy is going into a lull if you
take a look at a couple of key indexes. The ISM June index for
manufacturing moved down to 56.2 after reaching 59.7 in May. In that
anything over 50 signals expansion the backward step is a concern.
The Institute of Supply Management also
said that non-manufacturing reading in their index declined to 52.1
in June from May’s 55.4. This is a little more comforting in that
non-manufacturing businesses make up around 90% of the economy.
The Labor Department said that
unemployment dropped to 9.5% in June. While the numbers are skewed
due to census workers being let go this is a modest improvement as
private employers increased their headcount by 33,000 in May.
Over at the Commerce Department on
Friday it was announced that US factory orders declined 1.4% in May.
Durable goods dropped 0.6% and non-durable (food & oil)
decreased 2.1%. After four straight months of increases inventories
decreased 0.4%.
The trucking
industry did its part for employment by adding 1,000 jobs for a total
of 8,800 jobs since March.
Business is
booming at the railroads with Intermodal traffic jumping 20.5% the
week of June 21st
when compared year over year. The traffic detail was 227,228
trailers and containers. Other rail freight excluding intermodal
increased 11.4% for the week with 284,716 cars loaded.
At Wagner we are
starting to see seasonal business pick up and we are looking forward
to a robust third quarter. If you have any projects involving
fulfillment, distribution center network planning, or are just having
a tough time finding carriers we would welcome a conversation.
Have a great day!
John Wagner Jr
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John's Blog 
