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Universal Truckload Services’ first-quarter income rose from a year ago as load volumes improved.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Friday reported a first-quarter profit, turning around a loss from a year ago, as sales jumped 27% from a year ago to a record.

Consumer confidence rose in April from a 16-month low, according to the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index released Friday.

Manufacturing activity in the Chicago region slipped in April from March, but showed continued expansion, the Institute for Supply Chain Management-Chicago said Friday.

Heavy equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. said Friday its first-quarter profit more than quintupled on higher sales, and its boosted its full-year earnings outlook.

Consumer personal spending rose 0.6% in March, the Commerce Department said Friday.

Benefiting from increased global demand for its trucks, Volvo AB reported a 143% jump in first-quarter earnings from a year earlier, driven by a 22% increase in revenue, the company said April 27.

Already several years behind deploying biometric card readers to identify transportation industry workers at the nation’s ports, the Transportation Security Administration is not expected to issue a proposal for regulating the devices until late 2012.

Freight volumes and rates rose enough to overcome weather and fuel-price increase headwinds, four publicly traded less-than-truckload carriers said last week, reporting improved first-quarter results.

Rising inflation, whether fuel, food and other basic consumer prices, or the costs of running trucking firms, presents a danger of crimping fleet profit increases this year, transportation analysts said.