Business

With fuel prices going down, including diesel, truckers are still shutting down and still saying they aren’t making money — proving my own view that the problem is other than fuel prices.

Cargo traffic at ports in China declined for the first time in at least seven years last month, Bloomberg reported.

Navistar International Corp. said it plans to restate its results for the first nine months of fiscal year 2008 to show net income that was higher than first reported.

Durable goods orders fell 1% in November, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

Consumer personal spending fell 0.6% in November, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

First-time unemployment claims rose to a 26-year high for the week ended Dec. 20, the Labor Department said Wednesday.

Strong volume increases at Freightliner and Navistar drove the expansion of U.S. heavy-duty truck sales into a sixth month during November, although for the full year, purchase levels are all but guaranteed to fall below those of 2007, according to the latest survey from WardsAuto.com.

Saddled with widespread layoffs and continued slumping sales, trailer manufacturers have low expectations for 2009, as fleet customers hunker down to cope with a recession, dwindling freight markets and tight credit.

Truckload driver turnover rates fell to the lowest levels since American Trucking Associations began collecting the data in 1995, as trucking companies cut jobs and trimmed the size of their fleets in the face of sharply falling freight-hauling demand in the third quarter.