A federal judge last week ordered pilots for a cargo airline that delivers Amazon packages to go back to work. The judge in Cincinnati said it was in the public's interest to end the strike because holiday shoppers expect to receive their packages on time.

The Stifel Logistics Confidence Index - which measure logistics industry outlook - has reached its 14 consecutive months of negative confidence, with the numbers suggesting this will continue into 2017. As reflected by the performance of the Index, global trade remains at a low ebb, as it has for some time.

Michael Ducker, president and CEO of FedEx Freight, has joined a chorus of logistics and transportation interests calling for President-elect Donald Trump to honor America's commitment to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and bolster extant trade ties. "Trade agreements are the solution, not the problem," Ducker told the 2016 JOC Inland Distribution Conference, adding that his company was "100 percent committed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership."

Businesses that transport their goods via the highways, railways or the airways are likely to see an expansion of the nation's infrastructure. That's good news not just for companies that want to move their products in the most efficient manner possible. It may also be good news for a subset of the coal sector that produces so-called metallurgical coal for steelmaking.