Today's Pickup: Rough Start After Disappointing Asian Manufacturing Data

Good day, 

U.S. equity futures tumbled and stocks slumped across Europe and Asia after evidence of slowing Chinese growth dashed investor hopes for an upbeat start to 2019. Safe havens including gold, bonds and the yen all rallied, according to Bloomberg. The disappointing numbers out of the world's second-biggest economy appear to have shot down any emerging optimism on the first full day of trading in 2019. Weak manufacturing-activity surveys across Asia were followed by disappointing numbers in the euro zone, sending MSCI's index of world shares 0.4 percent lower. While Trump's struck positive notes about reaching a trade deal with his counterpart Xi Jinping over the weekend, the Chinese data, and similar readings from across Asia, are a stark example to investors that the protectionist showdown is starting to have an impact on economic activity.

Did you know? 

The global logistics market is expected to grow from $8.1 trillion in 2015 to $15.5 trillion by 2023, or a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.5 percent. Measured by freight volume, the CAGR from 2016 to 2024 is expected to be 6 percent.  

Quotable:

"I don't think any utility in North America is going to consider building coal as a new venture."

—Todd Williams, energy consulting firm ScottMadden

In other news:

Amazon plans to add Whole Foods stores

Expansion would widen tech giant's delivery reach. (WSJ)

Big tech may look troubled, but it's just getting started

Nothing has disrupted big tech enough to keep them from aggressive expansion plans. (New York Times)

Regulator examines railroads for hitting customers with late fees

Government looks into fairness of penalties for being slow with freight pickups. (WSJ) 

Tesla delivered slightly fewer Model 3's than Wall Street expected last quarter

Fourth-quarter Model 3 deliveries came in at 63,150 delivered, versus the expected 63,698 expected. (Business Insider) 

'Success story' Gefco formally applies to launch IPO next year

French logistics giant Gefco has applied to the Paris Euronext stock exchange to launch an initial public offering (IPO) next year. (The Loadstar)

Final thoughts:

Our new metric estimates the number of working truck drivers by combining daily diesel fuel consumption data with daily hours-of-service data pulled from ELDs: we think that the number of drivers has increased by 2% since May. Finally, remember that the "driver shortage" can never simply be an absolute number, but has to be calculated in relation to freight demand, which is always more volatile than employment levels. If we experience a macroeconomic downturn in 2019, trucking rates will plummet, driver shortage or not.

Hammer down everyone!

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