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U.S. consumer confidence held fell this month to its lowest level in five months, according to the latest Reuters/University of Michigan monthly consumer sentiment index released Friday.

Manufacturing levels in the Philadelphia region expanded in March at the fastest pace in four months, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said Thursday.

The U.S. economy improved in most of the Federal Reserve’s 12 districts in March, with the transportation sector improving in most areas, the Fed said.

The Department of Transportation’s freight transportation services index for February fell 2% from a year earlier but rose from January, DOT said.

The New York State Department of Transportation told a transportation task force that it will no longer pursue efforts to restrict trucks from using certain rural routes in the Finger Lakes area, American Trucking Associations said.

The consumer price index rose 0.1% in March, the Labor Department said Wednesday.

The U.S. trade deficit jumped 7.4% in February as imports climbed 1.7%, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

Maine has adopted legislation that will eventually require heating oil to have the same low-sulfur content as diesel fuel used in trucks, a move some in the oil and trucking industries fear could raise demand and prices for trucking’s main fuel.

TUCSON, Ariz. — Brokers attending the 2010 Transportation Intermediaries Association convention and trade show here were warned to beware of financial services firms that allow them to skirt federal requirements that they post a $10,000 surety bond.

Longhaul heavy tractor-trailers could achieve a fuel economy of more than 10 miles per gallon by 2030 — from today’s approximately 5 mpg to 6.5 mpg range — according to an analysis prepared for Congress by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.