TOP 100 TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTICS SITES
| |||
|
| |||
| |||
|
| |||
| Auto Sales Flat in November: Good News These Days TheCarConnection.com submits: If, as they say, "flat is the new up", then auto sales were way up last month. The U.S. saw 746,928 car and truck sales in November 2009 -- a statistical dead-heat with the 746,789 sold in November 2008. Of course, not every automaker stayed flat: Ford (F) sales crept up .1%, while GM dipped 1.8% and Chrysler tumbled 25.5%. At the top of the heap? Nissan (NSANY), which jumped 20.8%, and Hyundai, which surged a staggering 45.9%. The big news for now seems to be that the U.S. economy has stabilized -- which isn't as nice as growth, but if you recall the way everyone felt last November, it's a definite improvement. [DetNews]Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Harley-Davidson: Looking for a Good Short? Shed Some Fat David White submits:The market is overbought in the near term. The Fed is on the verge of removing massive amounts of liquidity ($1T). Some Fed governors are even talking about wanting to remove the assurance that Fed Funds rates will be held low for an extended period of time. A massive health care bill is on the verge of being approved. This will in all likelihood mean further expenses on health care; it at least symbolizes further entitlements. After the recent Greece fiasco, entitlements are anathema to the markets. They are Greece’s biggest problem. The market could turn down on this news, especially if the health care bill is approved. If it does, you probably want to have a few stocks to short.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Auto Industry Recovery: Not Quite Yet, Analysts Say TheCarConnection.com submits: Analysts at the market-research firm AutoPacific report that though there are many indications that the recession is ending—or over—there might not be any strong indicators in the automotive sector that things will get much better anytime soon.The firm has found that new-vehicle purchase intention has weakened, not strengthened, in recent months; so, barring stimuli like sales-stoking special deals and incentives—of which there have been plenty—demand this spring might actually be lower than it was for part of last year. Last September, the firm found that 23 percent of those polled indicated that they "were definitely or probably likely to acquire a new vehicle in the next 24 months." But in data from this March, only 20 percent indicated that.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Container Traffic Signals U.S. Economic Growth Calafia Beach Pundit submits: (Click to enlarge)July shipments of loaded outbound containers increased at the Port of Long Beach, but fell at the Port of Los Angeles. After a strong rebound early last year, both ports have seen an irregular upward trend in outbound container shipments that appears consistent with the gains in goods exports (blue line in the above chart). Data from the past few months seems to show somewhat of a slowdown in activity, consistent with slower growth reported for second quarter GDP and a slowdown in export activity in general.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
China’s Growth Leads to Problems Down the Road A nation on a building binge has plans to unclog the highways, but it may take years. nytimes.com |