Weekly Railroad Data - Still Negative

There is still little evidence of a rebound in the US economy based on the weekly carload data reported by the Association of American Railroads. While year-over-year declines have moderated to 19-20% in June vs. 25-26% in May, this is hardly a cause for celebration. Perhaps one positive takeaway gleaned from the data is that “Farm Products, Excluding Grain” experienced 4.8% year over year growth, though the other 18 categories were decidedly negative. Since transports generally serve as a leading indicator for a recovery, its hard to get on board with the “economy is healing” train in the face of such negative data (though I'm trying!).