Trucking & Freight Markets 360° - Spot Market
Regardless of whether a market participant ever uses binding forward and/or trucking freight futures, it will need to stay current on the pricing trends in both the trucking forward and freight futures markets as spot market rates in their lanes will be affected by both. This new section was designed to help logistics professionals stay ahead of these new realities.
Overall, the shipping and transportation/trucking indices and ETFs have increased throughout 2019. During October, the Dow Jones Trucking Index increased 11%, even with the DAT National U.S. Van rates decreasing. The DAT National U.S. Van Rate has changed directions almost in tandem with changes in the FW Sonar Outbound Tender Rejections Index throughout 2019—both of which have been decreasing since 9/20 (as of 10/20 the Outbound Tender Rejections Index started rebounding). Outbound tender volume decreased during October, which caused the load to truck ratio to decrease.
As of 10/25, tender volume has started to increase. Each of the DAT.com directional lanes/regional calculated indices (the underlying benchmark for the trucking freight futures contracts) decreased since the beginning of the year and mid-year. The exception being the Seattle to Los Angeles and the Chicago to Atlanta directional lanes, which both increased 27.15% and 16.5%, respectively.
