Are Transportation Stocks the Market’s Canary in a Coal Mine?

Are Transportation Stocks the Market’s Canary in a Coal Mine?
The Wall street sign near the New York Stock Exchange on Nov. 9, 2016. BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP/Getty Images
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NEW YORK—The U.S. transportation sector, which many see as a proxy indicator of the economy’s health, has retreated 3.1 percent from its Sept. 14 record, hinting to some analysts that the longest bull market on record has entered its late stages.

Railways, freight carriers, and package deliverers get less attention than heavy-hitting momentum stocks like Apple Inc. and Amazon.com, but the sector could be showing cracks in what analysts and the U.S. Federal Reserve characterize as a robust economy.