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the week. But private payrolls, according to ADP, payrolls rose forty one thousand, slightly below expectations. Private sector job creation turned positive in December, though a bit softer paced than expected. Payroll processing firm ads reported on Wednesday companies added a forty one thousand hires for the month, a reversal from a loss of twenty nine thousand in November, providing a positive sign for a labor market that otherwise struggled.

thousand instead of forty eight that they had expected. Payroll growth came entirely in service industries, as education and health related fields added thirty nine thousand jobs. Leisure and hospitality contributed to twenty four thousand.

We are still expanding that area. Therefore, these companies are adding employees to accommodate the business that they're having. Trade transportation utilities gained eleven thousand, which is good because in the transportation industry. That means more stuff is moving, more people are out on the road. As I talked about coming back from Nashville back in the mid December, the number of trucks that I saw out on the highway there I mentioned at the time, it was just absolutely incredible.

So kind of contrary to what all these economists were saying about, Oh, you know, we don't think the Christmas season is going to be very good. People are going to be holding back, people are gonna be No. They didn't hold back, well, they held back a little bit depending upon where you look. The total number amount of money spent was up. They just spent it in different places.

They spent on more valued type items as opposed to more luxury items, which in the final analysis, the stuff that you use on a regular basis, the more practical stuff that you buy, is a lot more important sometimes than some of the stuff that you may use only once in a blue moon type of thing. And so when people are shifting around, and you know, we have had major recessions back in the mid nineties, remember the

dot com bust. You know, everything was going to you know, the Internet and everything was developing as far as the dot coms, and then all of a sudden, that part of the economy just absolutely collapsed. Then you fast forward into two thousand and eight, two thousand and seven, two

thousand and five, we had this housing bubble. We had a lot of things going in in terms of subprime loans where the administration and the people at that time, starting back during the Clinton years, but continuing on into the Bush years, And every time I look back on the Bush years, what I thought was being done as far as conservativism at that time, not so much.

thousand and five, it was on fire. The housing prices were going up tremendously. People were getting into homes, people that shouldn't have been borrowing getting homes. They were adding income to them and saying, well, if you're getting these benefits and these benefits, well you could qualify basically for a loan.

can spend. So what they do is they went out and they bundled these loans and sold them at a discount where other people were processing those loans, and then they had more cash in order to lend. Well, what was happening is that they were taking well, let's say your mortgage, my mortgage, our mortgage had been sold to like four or five different companies. Now that is absolutely insane.

It wasn't illegal at the time. It was sure as hell unethical, but people were going out and selling these loans, not the same you know, not the same bundle, but they'd mix them up and.

we could form an insurance company. We could say, hey, what you know, we're going to guarantee these subprime loans, these loans that most people won't ensure.

downs in the economy. And during those periods of times when people, you know, in two thousand and eight, when housing prices went down about forty percent, a lot of people, you know, wound up losing their homes. But during times and the Great Recession as they call it at that time, not so much great, but in economic times, when things start tightening up and your dollar doesn't go as far, that's when people kind of look back and say, well, how can I save money? Where am I wasting money?

How can I get more value added to this stuff? And once in a while, even in good times, it's good to take a look at that and say, gosh, you know, I'm making money, I've got a good job. Do I need to be spending money on this, that and the other thing? Should I be socking a little bit of money away? And this whole idea of just you know, spend spend, spend, spend, spend when you don't have them, when you shouldn't be doing that. You should always be going for value. You know, I talk about

going to the grocery store. I went to the grocery store last night. I actually went up there because we were gonna have a salad, and so I went up to get some lettuce, and I think I went up to get some cheese, and I think I went up to get the eggs. So I only went up there to get three things. As I'm walking through the store,

it's but it was Tuesday night. I was up at the store, and the sales for that week and that time at that day, and then so the next day the stuff that was on sale won't be on sale. Walking through the store, I'm looking at certain prices, I said, well, geez, that's a pretty decent price. I hadn't really looked at the circulars or the flyers that had come out for those that week for that particular store. And so I'm walking through the store and I thought, well, gee whiz,

I'm getting low on cereal. So I buy a couple of boxes of cereal. I'll buy this, I'll buy this, and a couple of other items that I know that we're going to be using over the next couple of weeks, especially with football games and everything that's going to be playing, and so I thought, well, snacks and that.

I saved. According to the receipt here, I saved twenty six dollars in seas seventy nine cents and spent forty three dollars and thirty seven cents. Just by paying attention to what's going on, you cut your food bill. And these are the kinds of things that I recommend that people do on a regular basis, because I would much rather have that twenty six dollars in my pocket than mister Kroger. So anyway, not that I'm downplaying Kroger, minds.

You got decent prices if you pay attention. But anyway, coming up, we'll talk a little bit more about the private payroll survey. I'm Kevin Gordon, America's truck a Network seven hundred WLW.

nine thousand in November. Now, originally that number had come in at thirty two, but it had been adjusted because of the numbers, so it wound up being at twenty nine thousand. Not a big difference there, but again they had expected forty eight thousand, or the economists that expected forty eight thousand forty one thousand. There were fifteen percent off, but still in positive territory.

Where if they're still out there spending money, then these companies are adding payrolls transportation, more goods are being transferred, more goods are being transported over the whatever method, either through airfare or railroad or trucking industry. So again financial services rose by six thousand. Offsetting those gains were losses of twenty nine thousand in professional and business services and

twelve thousand information services. Remember, with all the AI and all that building up last year, a lot of technology companies were hiring more and more.

You know, you can go online now and you can see how certain well this time of year when people are doing their taxes or thinking in terms of their taxes, some of the programs that are out there are getting better and better and better at taking your information, putting it in there and coming up with a result, which means that people that would be normally going to some tax service company or in the professions there, those are you know, coming down. People aren't using that as much.

And in terms of companies, a lot of AI is starting to take over in those professional areas, and so we're seeing a little bit of a decrease there, but it could be temporary offsetting a gain twenty nine thousand professional and business services that could come back again based on if businesses aren't expanding, you're not going to have a need for somebody that is a merger and acquisition.

So if these companies that do merger and acquisition advisement, either accounting firms, at law firms or whatever, if they're not doing many of that, well, then they've got too many people on hand, and so they may be laying some of those people off. So again, when we're looking at nearly all the job games gains came in companies employing fewer than five hundred workers. That is a good sign because when you look at you know, we always

hear about the big major companies. You know, you got your A, you got your GM, and you have your Ford Motor Company, you have your grocery store companies, and you have a lot of major employers. But the bulk of people that are working are working for small companies. To give you an example, firms with fewer than one hundred employees less than one hundred employees employee fifty two

percent of the people that are working. Firms with one hundred to four hundred and ninety nine employees, they represent about twenty five percent of the employees working. Firms with more than five hundred employees only represent twenty three percent of the total people that are working out there, So the major gains if you're seeing an uptick in small businesses again, which they're not going to.

ones most adversely affected by interest rates. And as we start seeing interest rates coming down, as we start seeing them a nudge a little bit closer to a little bit more reasonableness, which again they are still, in my opinion, twice what they should be, because if you compare our interest rates to other countries around the world, in the developed world, developed countries, you look at what we're paying here versus what they're doing in England and France and

the European Union, while they're all in the European Union. But in other countries, Israel and some of these other countries, our interest rates are.

point one million in November. US Labor Statistics reported over the month, hires were little change. Let me see, hires were little change and total separations were unchanged at five point one million each within separations both quits three point two million and layoffs and discharges one point seven million. So that in terms of the labor market is kind of on an even keel.

where you're going to land before you quit. So if somebody is a job hopping, they are seeing a six point six point six percent increase, which is a little bit better. Talking about Bureau of Labor Statistics watching on firm payrolls, those will be coming out, I think they said on Friday, economic survey by dal Jones expects seventy three thousand new jobs for the month, up from sixty four thousand in November. Of course we'll see how those numbers pan out, and of course we'll have that for

you on Tuesday. But again the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of people job opening is to seven point one pretty much unchanged. So what boggles my mind is that if layoffs are low, if the unemployment, if the initial jobless claims are low, and the number of people that are out of work is unchanged, how are we going? And I can't wait to see the next unemployment number. They said it jumped up to four point six percent,

when it had been at four point one. Then they nudged it up to four point two sometime in September October thereabouts, then up to four point three I think it was in October. How it went to four point six percent when you don't see any major layoffs, when you don't see any major companies going out of business or anything along those lines, initial jobless claims remaining steady, the number of people that are out of work remaining

within a certain range. I just don't understand how they came up with that four point six percent unless there's some gaming of the numbers trying to downplay the economy.

Remember Rick Santelly talking about GDP when we got these, when they were expecting basically about a three point what was a three point eight percent increase in a GDP and it came in and roaring at five point a four point three percent increase, And he talked about consumer sentiment, and he said, you can take those consumer sentiment things and take a big shovel and put them in the

trash can. Because the mainstream media, as I call them, the spoon federc urgitators in the mainstream media, as he talked about, had poisoned the well. So again, the perception versus reality is incredible. Coming up, we're going to talk a little bit about transportation stocks. I'm Kevin Gordon, America's struck A Network seven hundred WLW tuitions.

across the lower Mississippi and Tennessee Valley Friday. Cooler temperatures will be seen in the interior West Thursday, as mountain snow was seen in the Cascades in northern Rockies Wednesday night. Meanwhile, record warm temperatures expected for much of the southeast to the Ohio Valley thirsty into Friday.

is higher interest rates. If that number gets freed up and people have more money to spend. We're going to see businesses expanding. We're going to see people buying more trucks, We're going to see people buying more cars. Hell, we had the report the other day that they had not expec They had expected, what a two percent increase in terms of new car sales, and it winds up being over six percent. What was it, Ford at six point six percent, Toyota up eight percent, something along those lines.

So those are major purchases, and if people are out there buying that, that's good for the economy. That's good for as far as GDP numbers and as far as people spending money. So the uptick people being optimistic about the economy. They may be, you know, on some of these surveys, it may be something to the extent of, well, you know, I'm feeling pretty good about my situation. You know, things seem to be going pretty good on my particular household.

But in these surveys when they ask them is well, what do you think about the rest of the economy, Well, you know, all the drum beat, as Rick Santelli said, the drum beat from the mainstream media, or as I refer to them, the spoon fed regurgitators in the mainstream media. They have poisoned the well. I would say that not only have they poisoned the well, they have destroyed the well.

So if people's optimism because of the drum beat from the spoon fed regurgitators the mainstream media talking about talking down the economy and in my opinion, trying to manufacture a recession, people may be answering these surveys and saying, well, gee, whiz. You know, I don't know about the rest of the economy, so you know, I'm down on the economy. I just don't think it's going to expand as much as I think think it's going to expand. Now my situation is fine,

but I'm worried about my neighbor. So again, it's one of those things where perception isn't meeting reality. Transportation stocks jumped to a record high on economic optimism. US transportation stocks closed at a record level January sixth, capping off a rebound fueled by prospects of strong economic growth this year.

Dow Jones Transportation average rose one point seven percent to close it and they gave the eighteen thousand thirty three point five, eight points above the previous record set in November of twenty twenty four, after falling short of a new high day earlier. Old Dominion Freight Line and Uber Technologies were among the top performers. The gauge slumped last year's President Donald Truyn love this.

government shutdown. Okay, so they throw that sentence in right after Donald Trump's trade war, but they don't mention that the flight chaos due to the longest government shutdown by Chuck Schumer and the Democrats. Why don't they put that in this particular story, because it was, in fact the Schumer shutdown, the longest shutdown in history, added to pain for airlines. The rebound came amid broad outperformance in stocks

closely linked to the health of the US economy. Let me repeat that, the rebound came amid broad out performance in stocks closely linked to the health of the US economy. According to Michael a'rouric, chief market strategists at Jones Trading, the transports have had a couple of major headwinds over the past twelve months the kept investors cautious, notably the trade war, terrifs and government shutdown. The group is catching

up to the market and the economy. Transport stocks added up to one point two percent advanced January the fifth, when airlines and logistics shares gained on expectations of US intervention in oil rich Venezuela.

highs for the month. We're talking about our stock market and looking at what is going on there is the highest in the history of the stock market, which means that people are feeling very good despite what the spoon fed regurgitators in the mainstream media are trying to propose now speaking of oil gas and talking about possibility of in there we just mentioned in terms of people thinking in terms of the transportation stock with fuel prices coming down,

let's take a look at oil and gas prices real quick.

But then when the dust settle and people take a look at this and what could possibly be happening down there in Venezuela and what's going on in the other oil markets, things have settled considerably.

down below seventy dollars a barrel, so called experts. Brent crude currently is fifty nine dollars and ninety seven cents a barrel. That is down seventy three cents or one point to zero percent. Donald Trump has not been in office a year yet. Okay, the inauguration was January the twentieth. Just since January the twentieth, Brent West Texas Intermediate is down twenty dollars and eighty seven cents a barrel, or twenty seven percent. Let me repeat that twenty seven percent.

Brent crude currently at the fifty nine ninety seven is down nineteen dollars and ninety three cents from where it was January the twentieth, when Trump took office. That means that that is down twenty five percent.

the first time since nineteen forty nine. Gasoline at that time was at two dollars and sixty six cents, so we were only fourteen cents higher than that, or six percent compared to a year ago.

and thirty nine cents. That's down twenty cents from last week. Now there are there are a couple and this is where your gas or where your fuel app comes into play. Because you got these apps that you can check, you know what fuel prices are around. There are some gas stations in my zip code that are selling gasoline to two and seventy nine cents. That's a forty cent per gallon difference. Again, cost conscious, go for the ones, and

these are reputable companies. At two dollars and thirty nine cents, you don't have to pay forty extra cents a gallon. Diesel currently at three dollars and twenty nine cents to a high of three dollars and thirty nine cents, so they're within about ten cents of each other, and that has been pretty much unchanged for the last couple of weeks. So I kind of give you an indication of what's going on as far as gas prices are concerned. Coming up,

we want to talk a little bit about uh. I want to talk a little bit about oil and some of the forecasts coming out of what we're going to be seeing down in Venezuela. I'm Kevin Gordon, America's Trucking Network seven hundred WLW.

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our country, and actually around the world. They were talking about, Oh, you know Donald Trump, you know he thinks that that you know that the oil companies going back in there, that it's gonna it's going to take three years in order for the those oil supply to come back from Venezuela. Okay, before Hugo Chavez took control of the government down there about fifteen, almost twenty years ago, they were pumping out three million barrels of oil per day. They are down

below a million barrels. I think the number I was seeing was somewhere in the neighborhood. Well, it is below a million dollars a million barrels, So two thirds of the oil that was being pumped is not being pumped. And of course, with the infrastructure, when you have a communist dictator, and you've got communists of collectivism that you know everybody, you know, nobody can everybody is equal, you know, nobody, nobody can make more, and you know there's no incentive

for anybody to do anymore. Well, of course, if there's no incentive for you to improve your situation or no to do better on the job because you can get a pay raise. The infrastructure down there, as you see in Cuba and every communist the economy, the infrastructure goes to hell in a handbasket.

At that point, people were saying, well, an war, and they were saying, well, you know, that's pristine area up there. We can't go in there. That's that's going to ruin the environment. We're gonna you know, the environment will be destroyed forever. Even though if you look at the map of at Alaska it amounted to well, give you put it in an example.

So you look at the entire football field and then you see that little area where the kicking tea would be, that would be where the drilling was. And at the time they were saying that, oh well, even if they started today, it would take three years before that would come online. Three years later, when that topic came up, they said, well, you know, if you start drilling, it'll

be three years. Well, you know, if you would have started three years, we'd have been there by now, and we would we're still waiting for that to be up and running the way it should be So with these knuckleheads talking about Venezuela, it's going to be three years before this is back up and running. Well, not so fast.

There are folks I mentioned yesterday that with Donald Trump working with these oil companies and the oil companies champion at the bit to get there, that when you have the willpower, when you have the incentive, and when you have well the willpower basically is what it boils down to,

you can get it done. There are estimates now that within a short period of time some of those things will come up, and there is new prediction or coming out from the White House that this could be up and running in a major way within eighteen months again, not three.

and stuff, you see the orange barrels forever. A lot of times these states are not smart enough to go in and talk to these contractors and say, okay, here's the specs, here's the thing, we want this done in a X X period of time, and instead of it dragging out, if you get it done earlier, here is a bonus for you. And surprise, surprise, when there's a bonus on the line, a.

or safer than the US. So you send those people down there with their no how and get those things up and running, and that again changes the oil market they're talking about as far as how that would happen. Venezuela pump more than three million barrels prior to Hugo Chavez, that could change dramatically. Talking about oil prices, we have

talked about that earlier. Oil extended declines on Wednesday as investors digested statements from President Donald Trump the US had reached a deal to import up to two billion dollars worth of Venezuela and oil, a move that could lift supplies to the world's largest oil consumers. Both benchmarks slipped more than a dollar during the previous trading session, with

a market participants expecting ample global supply this year. The deal between Washington and Caracas could initially require cargoes that were bound for time, because there's a lot of oil that had been pumped out of the ground there in Venezuela that is sitting in storage tanks and on tankers that have been unable to move that out of that country. So there's a build up of supplies they're ready to

be put on the market. Venezuela has millions of barrels of oil on tankers in storage tanks that has been unable to ship since mid December due to a blockade on exports imposed by Trump. The blockade was part of the US pressure campaign against Venezuela President Nicholas Maduro's government that culminated the US forces capturing him over the weekend,

and of course this oil being sanctioned again. These sanctions began back during the Biden administration because trying to keep the oil flow to Russia, trying to hold back on their millions and billions of dollars that they make from their oil trade, cutting that pipeline off for them, which cuts off the spickett of money that they can fund their war machine, trying to bring that conflict to an end.

Top Venezuela officials have called Maduro's capture a kidnapping and accused the US of trying to steal the country's vast oil reserves. Of course, nothing is further from the truth. Venezuela will be turning over between thirty and fifty million barrels of sanctioned oil to the US. Let's see, adding to geopolitical risk. US is attempting to seize a Venezuela and linked oil tanker after it was more than two

week long pursuit across the Atlantic. Some of the other things going on, the oil prices have been affected by now, get this providing support to prices.

four hundred and forty seven thousand barrels. So the barrels the amount of storage dropped by three point eight They had predicted a rise of four hundred and forty eight They only missed four hundred and forty seven thousand barrels. They only missed that estimate by eight hundred and fifty percent. Gasoline stockpiles increased by seven point seven million barrels in the week. They had expected three point two million barrels build. They only missed that by one hundred and forty one percent.

Dissolate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, climbed by five point six million barrels.