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A bullish outlook for 2021? — Great Quarter, Guys

What the new year could bring to the market

Great Quarter, Guys is sponsored by CarrierDirect

The first “You Care or Nah?” of 2021 brings some big debates to the GQG set.

Norway has goals to be completely carbon neutral in the near future, and electric vehicle sales are expected to climb over 60% in 2021, something both Andrew Cox and Seth Holm care about despite the small market for cars in Norway. 

Taiwan-based Foxconn has struck a deal with Chinese company Byton to produce an electric vehicle, and Holm cares because Foxconn is a producer that will be involved in production of the Apple electric vehicle. 


United States manufacturing is accelerating after taking a dip in 2020. Holm thinks this is great news for transportation, especially for LTL and intermodal carriers, because a strong industrial economy is good for the overall market.

Cox says this is not just a U.S. bump, but a global rebound in manufacturing as indices across Asia are up as well. 

Roku is purchasing video content from short-format video platform Quibi; Holm thinks it’s not that big of a deal when compared to the large scale of Roku’s success, but it does signal an intent to get into the content creation game. 

Cox laid out his expectations for the 2021 retail landscape during this episode of Midday Market Update, and the guys keep on the new year predictions by discussing Deutsche Bank analyst Amit Mehrotra’s 2021 transportation outlook.


Holm says the report predicts continued consumer spending on goods thanks to the stimulus funds, and a bullish outlook on manufacturing, specifically on industry involving oil-using products. 

Even the industrial outlook is very optimistic, especially around Boeing thanks to the enormity of the company. 

The only point in Mehrotra’s report Cox disagrees with is the assertion of a consumer surge thanks to a demand backlog; Cox says most consumers have already released their desire to spend and that was seen in the 2020 e-commerce boom. 

You can find more Great Quarter, Guys recaps and recaps for all our live podcasts here.

Kaylee Nix

Kaylee Nix is a meteorologist and reporter for FreightWaves. She joined the company in November of 2020 after spending two years as a broadcast meteorologist for a local television channel in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Kaylee graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2018 and immediately made the Tennessee Valley her home. Kaylee creates written summaries of FreightWaves live podcasts and cultivates the social media for FreightWaves TV.