Q3 rail recap: The good and not so good

With the railroads’ third-quarter earnings releases over and done, it’s time to take a look at who the “winners” and “laggards” were in Q3.

For commodities, the answer might be looking at North American rail volumes in the third quarter. Grain is one obvious “winner.” U.S. grain volumes were up 27.8% in September and 25.5% in October, according to the Association of American Railroads, while Canadian Pacific (NYSE: CP) and CN (NYSE: CNI) reported record grain movements over the last several...