Purchases of new homes in the U.S. surged in December to the highest level in 10 months, closing out the best year for housing since 2007.
Sales jumped 10.8 percent last month to a 544,000 annualized pace, a Commerce Department report showed Wednesday. The Bloomberg survey median called for a 500,000 rate. For all of 2015, purchases climbed 14.6 percent to 501,000.
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Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant expects oil prices will climb toward the end the year, saying the current price of around $30 a barrel is not sustainable.
Home prices in 20 U.S. cities rose at a faster pace in the year ended November, underscoring the shortage of supply amid steady demand. The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities increased 5.8 percent from a year earlier, the biggest advance since July 2014, a report from the group showed Tuesday in New York. The median projection of 31 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 5.7 percent gain. Nationally, prices rose 5.3 percent year-over-year.
The economy is expected to continue to expand at a pace slightly above trends for 2016, according to Bill Strauss, senior economist and economic adviser, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Speaking in Las Vegas at Heavy Duty Aftermarket Dialogue Monday, Strauss talked about a number of factors affecting the economy and offered his thoughts on what we can expect for the year ahead.
Following up on last fall’s successful campaign to include a port performance statistics program in the federal long-term surface transportation bill, the National Retail Federation is leading a coalition of more than 100 groups in sending specific recommendations to the Department of Transportation.
Last year was the trailer industry’s best shipment year in history, edging out the previous record set in 1999, according to an ACT Research report. Despite slower trailer orders in December, which fell 31% month-to-month and 38% year-over-year, ACT also believes the solid trailer-order trend will continue, though volume may not reach last year’s levels.
The acting administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration told a Senate panel that the mandated study of the effectiveness of the agency’s Carrier Safety Accountability scoring program is slated to begin next month.
U.S. railroads logged 242,670 carloads, down 16.6 percent, while intermodal volumes edged up 1.1 percent for the second week of 2016, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR). For the week ending Jan. 16, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 506,433 carloads and intermodal units, down 8.2 percent compared with the same week last year.
Despite the many peaks and valleys freight flows saw in 2015, one mode that collectively saw more of the former was intermodal. That was especially clear in December and full-year 2015 volumes from the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA).
Spot truckload freight activity increased sharply during the first full week of 2016, as rates also improved or held steady – while a separate report shows December was better than the month before.
According to the freight matching service provider DAT Solutions, which operates the DAT network of load boards, despite a 2-cent decline in the average fuel surcharge, national average rates rose for vans and reefers last week while flatbed rates were unchanged.