[bt1a]

transportation, warehousing, and utilities being a headlining loser here is the most striking.... perhaps?

[toomuchtodo]

Heavy Truck Sales Collapsed in Q4; Down 32.5% Year-over-Year in December - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46514490 - January 2026

(heavy trucks sales collapse is a recession indicator)

[germinalphrase]

Craig Fuller - the CEO of Freightwave - has been indicating that their freight data clearly suggests the US economy is in much worse shape than official reporting.

[dzonga]

this is usually more accurate than most indicators - as America's economy runs on trucks not donuts.

more trucks on the road - more goods flowing - heavy machinery included, things getting built etc. less trucks - trouble

[AnimalMuppet]

Certainly sounds like canaries telling us the rest of the economy is not doing great. (Not warning us that it's going to have problems. Telling us it already does.)

[HeyLaughingBoy]

The economy canaries can't tell us anything: they're already dead.

[yencabulator]

That's literally how the canaries would inform the miners about toxic gases.

[sehansen]

Happily, this wasn't actually the case. Canaries faint long before they die and miners would carry small resuscitation chambers where the canaries could be reawakened in an oxygen-rich atmosphere. The Science and Industry Museum in Liverpool has one in their collection: https://blog.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk/canary-resuscit...

[yencabulator]

Interesting, but I frankly doubt the birds remained utterly unharmed. Birds are really sensitive to many gases, with the common anecdote being to not cook with nonstick pans if you have a parrot.

[HeyLaughingBoy]

"Yes, Ted. That was the joke."