Industrial economy

With so many fingers pointed at so many targets, the Q1 GDP data must have been an absolute disaster, right? Well, no.

The difficulty in comparing “hard” versus “soft” data is that sentiment influences decisions that will eventually bear out in the hard data.

In the run-up to Tuesday’s promised barrage of tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China, the U.S. industrial sector is not looking so hot — a dark omen for domestic freight demand.

If consumers were able to keep pace with the incredible inflation of the early pandemic, they should be able to weather any storm kicked up by tariffs.

New tariffs pose a significant challenge for U.S. refiners, who are already grappling with declining profit margins.

Even cars assembled in the U.S. are not exempt from tariff shocks, as components from Mexico and Canada account for roughly 10% of the value of U.S.-built cars, with an additional 5% to 6% coming from Chinese inputs.

Businesses are heading into 2025 with lean inventories and high demand from consumers.

Consumers’ growing pessimism could trigger a pullback in discretionary purchases, directly weighing on trucking demand.

Despite encouraging signs, the U.S. manufacturing sector remains in the early stages of recovery.

Anthony and Zach discuss the potential impact of Hurricane Laura to the freight market and bring on special guest Chris Bryant, a flatbed owner-operator, for insight on what is happening on the road.

Anthony and Zach talk to rail and intermodal expert Mike Baudendistel about some interesting signals from that sector as well as connecting the dots between modes.

Persistent industrial weakness sends Old Dominion’s fourth-quarter results down

YRC posts weak fourth-quarter, hampered by bad economy

It’s that time of year; time to look forward and plan for the year. In order to have a better idea of where the economy and industry are headed, we always like to look back and review from where we came and what happened.