[Excerpt from The Pickett Line April 2025 Issue] “May you live in interesting times,” read the little piece of paper inside the fortune cookie – part of the carry-out dinner from the local Hunan Spring for the writers and analysts at Pickett Research last week. As the team struggled to come up with a theme […]
May you live in interesting times. Read More »
[Excerpt from The Pickett Line March 2025 Issue] Now a full month into the wildly disruptive US Trade War declared on Liberation Day April 2nd (perhaps a date which will live in global supply chain infamy), the US and China remain deadlocked. And while recent news suggests that negotiations have been initiated, the 125%-145% relative
The calm before the storm. Read More »
[Excerpt from the The Pickett Line February 2025 Issue] Well, that was…something. Just when the Y/Y inflationary leg of this new US Truckload Spot Linehaul Rate cycle was starting to pick up some steam: One, Two, Three, Four…Trump declares a trade war! And financial markets around the globe reacted swiftly with a big thumbs down.
1, 2, 3, 4…Trump declares a trade war. Read More »
[Excerpt from The Pickett Line January 2025 Issue] ‘Same as it ever was’ we said back in the October 2024 issue, taking our inspiration for that month’s market theme from David Byrne and the Talking Heads. And a few months before that, in the June issue, we looked to Jim Morrison and The Doors to
Little ditty ’bout truck-ing de-mand. Read More »
[Excerpt from The Pickett Line December 2024 Issue] And we’re off. After an unusually inflationary January where spot market rates shrugged off typical seasonality and ran materially hotter than December, we’re now into the first week of February where conditions have since cooled in line with the season. And given we really don’t know how
Seasonality strikes back. Read More »
[Excerpt from The Pickett Line November 2024 Issue] Happy New Year 2025! After suffering through the 3rd year of the deflationary leg of the last US TL Spot Linehaul Rate Cycle and, after last month’s issue, the 3rd annual corny ‘Twas the night before Christmas…’-inspired holiday freight market poem from the literary elves at Pickett
Winter is here. Time to make some hay. Read More »
[Excerpt from The Pickett Line October 2024 Issue] Well, we’ve got some bad news and some good news this month. And we’re not talking about the US truckload freight market or the broader economy – at least not yet. The bad news is, as many of you are no doubt aware as you stew in
Same as it ever was. Read More »
[Excerpt from The Pickett Line September 2024 Issue] Well, we made it through another month of a US truckload freight market that continues for the most part to bend without breaking. After last month’s August issue characterized current market conditions as ‘Stuck in Neutral’, we have since been forced to contend with a barrage of
Picket lines and campaign signs. Read More »
[Excerpt from The Pickett Line August 2024 Issue] With Q3 now just about baked, it looks like we’ll hang on to our first Y/Y inflationary print on the US TL Spot Linehaul Index in nine long quarters – if only by a thread. After breaking on through (to the other side) in the June issue
[Excerpt from The Pickett Line July 2024 Issue] After breaking on through (to the other side) last month with our first Y/Y inflationary print on the US TL Spot Linehaul Index in nine long quarters at +3.0%, over the balance of July and now into August the market appeared to signal “not so fast!” We