The decline in US rail freight forecasts an economic slowdown

Railroad cargo in the U.S. dropped the most in six years in 2015, and things aren't looking good for the new year – Bloomberg summons the analysis of Bank of America (BofA)

“We believe rail data may be signaling a warning for the broader economy,” the recent note from Bank of America says. “Carloads have declined more than 5 percent in each of the past 11 weeks on a year-over-year basis. While one-off volume declines occur occasionally, they are generally followed by a recovery shortly thereafter. The current period of substantial and sustained weakness, including last week’s -10.1 percent decline, has not occurred since 2009.” (MTI)