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U.S. consumer confidence improved this month, according to the Reuters/University of Michigan’s final monthly consumer sentiment index released Friday.

Rates for freight services bought on the spot market have nose dived to 1990s levels as shrinking fuel surcharges have sent prices falling further while the recession continues to ravage shipping demand.

December truck tonnage plummeted 14.1% from year-earlier levels and 11.1% from November, the worst freight performance in more than a decade.

Oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. Friday reported a 2008 profit of $45.2 billion, breaking its own record for a U.S. company, although its fourth-quarter earnings fell 33% from a year ago, the Associated Press reported.

Velocity Express Corp. reported it lost $9.1 million, or $3.36 a share, in its fiscal second quarter, compared with a loss of $8.9 million, or $3.82, a year earlier.

The U.S. economy contracted 3.8% in the fourth quarter, the biggest drop since 1982, though it grew for the year, the Commerce Department said Friday.

Saia Inc. said Friday its fourth-quarter earnings fell to $1.4 million, or 10 cents a share, from $2 million, or 15 cents, a year ago.

Surface trade among the United States, Canada and Mexico fell 13.8% in November from a year earlier, the Department of Transportation said Thursday.

Rail and intermodal traffic fell for the week ended Jan. 24 from a year ago, the Association of American Railroads said.