YRC Worldwide: The Anti-Transport

This morning's "Ahead of the Tape" column in the Wall Street Journal questioned the rally in the Transports, and whether or not it is really an indication of a stronger economy down the road.

One stock mentioned in the article is YRC Worldwide (YRCW). Last year we wrote about YRCW and highlighted how for several quarters now the stock has been a serial underperformer. Additionally, since Wal-Mart (WMT) and Home Depot (HD) are two of the companies biggest customers, we noted that YRCW's underperformance was more likely due to troubles at those two companies than what was happening in the economy.

YRCW report earnings after the close today, and analysts aren't expecting much (out of the 12 analysts covering it, 7 have it rated a hold and 5 have it as a sell). But just as the stock suffered as a result of its exposure to WMT and HD, the recent performance of these two names suggests that things may not be as bad for YRCW as the analysts think.

Finally, in our post last Fall we noted that, "...there isn't a day that goes by lately where the CEO of YRC Worldwide (YRCW) isn't interviewed on TV talking about how bad the economy is right now." Maybe it's just us, but we can't remember the last time Zollars was on TV complaining about the economy. Hopefully it means things have picked up.