Rail Traffic Confirms That The Economy Remains Sluggish

The good news from this week’s rail traffic report is that we’re not sliding into consistently negative readings that might lead us to a far less constructive position on the economy. The bad news is that the 12 week moving average has slid down to 2.4% and is consistent with an economy that remains sluggish.

Here are the details on this week’s data from AAR:

“The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported an increase in traffic for the week ending May 18, 2013, with total U.S. weekly carloads of 285,679 carloads, up 1.9 percent compared with the same week last year. Intermodal volume for the week totaled 250,156 units, up 3.5 percent compared with the same week last year. Total U.S. traffic for the week was 535,835 carloads and intermodal units, up 2.6 percent compared with the same week last year.

Five of the 10 carload commodity groups posted increases compared with the same week in 2012, led by petroleum and petroleum products, up 38 percent. Commodities showing a decrease compared with the same week last year included grain, down 28.3 percent, and metallic ores and metals, down 7.1 percent.

For the first 20 weeks of 2013, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 5,530,177 carloads, down 1.7 percent from the same point last year, and 4,791,035 intermodal units, up 4.3 percent from last year. Total U.S. traffic for the first 20 weeks of 2013 was 10,321,212 carloads and intermodal units, up 1 percent from last year.”

Chart via Orcam Investment Research:

Pragmatic Capitalism

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