As regular readers are aware, we pay a lot of attention to monthly truck sales. Trucks are not only higher margin, but they are often purchased by small businesses and contractors so they provide a good read on the health of the small business sector. Based on these sales totals for January, small businesses are still expanding, but the pace of sales growth in January slowed after a Monster December. For the month of January, total truck sales came in at 58,937. While that’s a strong number relative to history (5th strongest since 1996), on a y/y basis it represents an increase of only 1.6% even though this past January had one extra selling day compared to January 2017. It’s hard to complain when sales are so close to the high end of their historical range, but it’s something investors have come to expect.