Amtrak resuming Coast Starlight service
Amtrak is resuming Coast Starlight service between Los Angeles and Seattle on Aug. 23.
Service on the Coast Starlight route was suspended for several weeks due to wildfire damage in Northern California, according to the company.
Coast Starlight is widely regarded as one of the most spectacular of all train routes with scenery that includes peaks of the Cascade Range and Mount Shasta, lush forests and long stretches of the Pacific Ocean, Amtrak said in a release.
The new Coast Starlight schedule has been updated on all Amtrak reservation systems, including Amtrak.com and the Amtrak app.
Spokane’s Auto Ramp Services purchased
Professional Transportation Inc. has acquired Spokane-based Auto Ramp Services Inc. in an effort to diversify and expand service offerings to its railroad clients.
Professional Transportation Inc., headquartered in Evansville, Indiana, provides ground transportation services nationwide to companies in the railroad, mining and energy industries.
Auto Ramp Services provides auto loading and unloading, and gate administration services to the railroad industry in Iowa, Minnesota, Montana and Washington.
“The acquisition by PTI is an excellent alignment of our business with an existing and well-respected supplier to the nation’s rail industry,” ARS’s CEO and owner Jack Haley said in a statement.
“It also serves to protect our employees as I transition to retirement and provides them a bright future with PTI.”
The transaction closed Aug. 6., according to a company release. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Wall Street trading choppy, markets finish mostly down
Wall Street closed out another choppy day of trading Thursday, leaving the major stock indexes on pace for a weekly loss.
The S&P 500 managed a 0.1% gain after having been down 0.7% in the early going.
The Nasdaq composite also recovered to eke out 0.1% gain, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2%.
Small companies fell broadly. A late-afternoon rally in technology stocks helped offset some of the losses in energy companies, banks and other sectors.
Prices for oil and other commodities also fell, pulling mining and energy stocks lower.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.25%.
Investors continued to size up quarterly report cards from retailers.
Macy’s posted its second-biggest single-day gain as traders cheered the department store chain’s latest results.
Much of the market’s choppiness, especially in the S&P 500, is due to investors trying to position themselves as they gauge the pace of the recovery and how it will benefit different sectors of the economy.
The market first has to gauge the near-term prospects for the economy as COVID-19 remains a threat, Freedman said.
At the same time, investors have to also focus on what the economy looks like after the virus recedes or when the world learns to live with the virus in a different way.
The S&P 500 added 5.53 points to 4,405.80. The Dow fell 66.57 points to 34,894.12.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 15.87 points to 14,541.79.
From staff and wire reportsThe Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 26.36 points, or1.2%, to 2,132.42.