Old Dominion Freight Line experienced a moderation in the decline of its key performance indicators during February. The company reported a 3.3% year-over-year decrease in revenue per day for the month, an improvement from the 6.8% drop observed in January.

"We are encouraged by trends that we have seen develop in our business… we remain cautiously optimistic about the direction of the domestic economy," stated Marty Freeman, Old Dominion's President and CEO, in a press release.

Old Dominion's (NASDAQ: ODFL) tonnage saw a 6.8% year-over-year decline in February. This was primarily driven by a 7% decrease in daily shipments, which was only partially counteracted by a modest 0.2% increase in weight per shipment. However, revenue per hundredweight (yield) showed positive growth, increasing by 3.5% year-over-year through the first two months of the year. Following a 3.1% yield increase in January, this suggests that February's yield was approximately 4% higher.

Excluding fuel surcharges, the yield was 4.1% higher year-over-year for the first two months of the period.

On a two-year stacked comparison, Old Dominion's volume declines have shown consistent improvement, moving from a low of -20.8% in October to -13.9% in February. The company noted that winter storms have presented a headwind to volumes over the past three months.

(Table: Company reports)

Separately, data released on Monday indicated that manufacturing activity remained in expansion territory for the second consecutive month in February. The Purchasing Managers' Index registered a reading of 52.4, a slight decrease of 20 basis points from January.