Rails Roll On Into The Fall

Although the railroad sector spent most of the summer chopping along (as did the broader market), between fears of a double-dip recession and the realities of ongoing strength, the fall has been off to a good start. Looking at the rail traffic data provided by the American Association of Railroads, September was another strong result for U.S. carriers and if this keeps up, the stocks will likely continue to find healthy bids. 


The Cars Of September
The data shows that U.S. carloads rose almost 8% on a year-over-year basis in September and achieved the highest average number of carloads per week since October of 2008. Industry-watchers may remember this as the high point before the bottom fell out in this recent recession. In any event, traffic was still down almost 8% from the 2008 level, while carloads did rise 2% on a sequential seasonally-adjusted basis. (For more, see Rails And Supplies Suggest More Volatility) 

What is interesting is that there appears to be a bit of a divergence between the United States and Canada. Although the four non-holiday weeks of this September were some of the most active weeks all year, Canadian traffic is showing less momentum. Now, it is true that Canada never got as bad as the U.S. and the momentum is still positive, but the relative outperformance gap seems to be shrinking a bit. 


Please follow this link to Investopedia for the full article:
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2010/Rails-Roll-On-Into-The-Fall-CP-CNI-NSC-F-UNP-GWR-KSU1014.aspx

Rails And Supplies Suggest More Volatility

There is no doubt that the general opinion concerning the U.S. economy is not all that positive among professional investors and commentators these days. After all, the stock market has been bumping along since a big drop in late spring, gold has found some renewed vigor, lending activity is still soft and interest rates and inflation appear to be low. 

Yet, a quick look at some other industrial indicators suggests that things are not yet getting all that bad.  

Rails Roll On
September's Rail Time Indicators report from the Association of American Railroads (covering the month of August) continued to show what amounts to at least a tepid recovery in rail traffic. Overall carload volume was up almost 6% from the year-ago level, though still below 2008 levels (to say nothing of 2007 and 2006) by more than a double-digit margin. What does stand out as a potential warning flag, though, was the seasonally-adjusted sequential performance where carloads did fall about 1.6% from August.  

For the full column, please click the link below:
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2010/Rails-And-Supplies-Suggest-More-Volatility-CNI-CP-UNP-NSC-GWW0914.aspx