Cass Freight Index

The report showed further deceleration in the freight markets in May and warns an economic contraction could be underway.

April shipments were down 3.2 percent year-over-year, prompting Boughton to acknowledge “material and growing downside risk to the economic outlook” in the latest Cass Freight Index Report.

The Cass Truckload Linehaul Index reached another record high in October while the company’s Intermodal Price Index points to rising intermodal costs.

In her final conference call as CEO, PepsiCo’s Indra Nooyi presented their third-quarter results, once more pointing to transportation costs that threatened to eat into profits.

The Cass indexes are showing no signs of a freight slowdown, despite some concern that a peak may have been reached.

Flatbed demand, railroads’ chemical carload volumes, and the price of WTI crude are all bullish signals for an historically hot freight environment to continue through the rest of the year.

Citing depressed sales for products like its line of Yoplait yogurts and ‘rising commodity and freight expenses,’ General Mills announced it would eliminate hundreds of positions in an attempt to strengthen its margins.

Trucking contract rate increases tamp down volatility; Nikola Motor Company returns deposits on truck orders; Hunter Harrison was one of the highest paid CEOs in 2017; Xi Jinping takes the stage to defend Chinese trade practices; container lines enter bid season with a weak hand.

This week we are using the Cass Information Systems data to review what is happening in the economy overall.