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U.S. consumer confidence this month rose by the most in four years in September, according to the Reuters/University of Michigan’s preliminary monthly consumer sentiment index, released Friday.

Business inventories rose 1.1% in July, the Commerce Department said Friday.

Prices paid to U.S. producers fell 0.9% in August, the Labor Department said Friday.

Retail sales fell 0.5% in August, the Commerce Department said Friday.

A day after the Senate passed a bill to fund an $8 billion shortfall in the federal Highway Trust Fund, the House followed suit, voting 376-29 to approve a similar measure.

A federal judge last week denied American Trucking Associations’ request for a preliminary injunction against controversial portions of emission-reduction programs at the California ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Congress, after an abrupt about-face by the Bush administration, moved quickly last week to transfer more than $8 billion into the Highway Trust Fund to keep the road-building finance program solvent.

Astronomic fuel prices are only part of the economic drag on trucking these days. Add the growing length of time on accounts receivables, more customer bankruptcies and the tightening of credit by suppliers and lenders, and it’s easy to see how carriers’ cash flow has ebbed.

Fuel prices last week continued their slide from July’s record highs, as the U.S. retail average for diesel fuel dropped for an eighth straight week and gasoline for the ninth.