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U.S. consumer confidence has improved to the highest level since September, according to the Reuters/University of Michigan monthly consumer sentiment index released Friday.

The U.S. economy contracted at an annual rate of 5.7% in the first quarter, a slight improvement from the 6.1% downturn reported last month, the Commerce Department said Friday.

I enjoyed the opinion piece titled “To the Swiftest Go the Spoilers” by Phil Romba in the May-June Equipment & Maintenance Update supplement to the May 18 issue of Transport Topics.

Freight levels continue to dive, even as there are increasing signs that the recession’s bottom has been touched and most economists are predicting that U.S. economic growth will resume in the year’s last quarter.

Truck and engine manufacturer Navistar Inc. has challenged the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to certify heavy-duty diesel engines using selective catalytic reduction to meet the agency’s 2010 standards for emissions of nitrogen oxides.

Manufacturing activity in the Chicago declined in April, showing contraction for a seventh straight month, the Institute for Supply Chain Management-Chicago said Friday.

India’s Tata Motors said it is unveiling a new line of trucks to be called the “world truck,” the New York Times reported Thursday.

New home sales increased 0.3% in April, the Commerce Department said Thursday.