Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[ajtj99]

ajs, retail is still slow. There should be plenty of deals to be had in the 4th quarter, as the retailers have really ordered a lot of stuff (going by the import numbers).

Truckers could be helped a bit near term by the demise of Consolidated, but it won't help that much. They were in a death-spiral and many had already shifted to other carriers.

Fuel, Labor, equipment, and taxes are what you have to look at for truckers. New emissions requirements for engines have driven up the cost of 2003 rigs by as much as $9,000.00 Labor costs are not going down, as it is still tough to get people to stay in that job. Furthermore, fuel prices have remained high.

With slack business in the slowing economy, the high fixed costs have forced the truckers to slash pricing and sacrifice variable costs in order to maintain a steady revenue stream.
This is why stocks are suffering.

The bottom line is a slow economy means truckers will suffer with everyone else, but more because of their high fixed costs.
War will spike oil prices too, and that's another thing driving the stocks down.