Falling U.S. freight shipments weigh on economy, truckers

The U.S. shipping industry shows “the reality of a slowing global growth story,” Peter Boockvar, Bleakley Financial Group LLC’s chief investment officer, wrote in an email Tuesday. Boockvar cited the year-to-year change in an index compiled by Cass Information Systems Inc., a freight-payment processor. The Cass Freight Shipments Index fell in February by 2.1 percent, the steepest drop since July 2016. Declining demand hurts trucking companies, and an S&P index tracking the industry fell Tuesday by 3.6 percent, its biggest loss of the year.