Doomsday Scenario: U.S. freight index falls 25% in April

Posted May 6th 2009 9:10AM by Alex Salkever
Filed under: Forecasts, Bad News, Indices, Economic Data, Financial Crisis

For the green shoots believers, a dose of reality: The Journal of Commerce reports that the Cass Freight Systems Index (Cass is a company that tracks freight spending) fell by a whopping 25% in April 2009 (hat tip to ZH).

This comes on the heels of a strong run-up in transports. The IYT Index that tracks this segment dipped below $40 in early March. At close of day on Tuesday it logged $59.54. Freight shipments and freight spending are the lifeblood of the U.S. economy and a key leading indicator for economic activity as both retailers use them to replenish inventories and durable goods.

This sort of shocking decline seems odd considering that most companies claimed to have already taken huge chunks out of inventories and have moved down considerably. Some of the decline comes from lower fuel prices but that's not enough to account for the large overall decline.

Alex Salkever is Director of Research at Piqqem.com, a stock prediction community powered by the Wisdom of Crowds.

Tags: recession, statistics, transportation, trucking

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

5-11-2009 @ 2:04PM

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