If Christmas tree sales are anything to go by, U.S. consumers aren’t pulling the plug on holiday shopping this year—but they might be dimming the lights.

Heading into the holiday season, Tim Leyden, who owns Big John Leyden’s Tree Farm in West Greenwich, R.I., thought he was going to have a great year. There aren’t as many Christmas tree farms in the state as there used to be, and he reckoned that would bolster his numbers. Instead, business has been down a bit, and he thinks it is because people are feeling pinched.

The WSJ’s Justin Lahart reports that Leyden is seeing signs of a bifurcated economy, with well-off consumers still spending freely. Taller trees that he sells for $100 did as well this year as last. But smaller ones that cost $75, and that make up the bulk of tree sales did worse. The extras that people load up on, such as wreaths and garlands, haven’t been selling well at all.

Over the years, Christmas-tree sales have been a decent indicator of how overall consumer spending is doing, according to Oscar Sloterbeck of Evercore ISI. This year, the Christmas tree survey suggests sales aren’t very good, running just 3% above last year’s levels. Last year, sales rose 7%.

The U.S. Navy is placing a multibillion-dollar bet that domestic shipyards can make American shipbuilding great again as it chose HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding to build a new class of frigates. American shipbuilders have struggled to produce vessels on time and budget due to a shortage of skilled workers, supply-chain issues and aging facilities. The new ship will replace the Constellation-class frigate that the Navy canceled last month after years of delays.

The WSJ’s Marcus Weisgerber and Lara Seligman write that HII, the U.S. Navy’s largest shipbuilder, touted a $1 billion investment in its infrastructure, tooling and facilities at Ingalls. Navy Secretary John Phelan said the Navy is looking to boost the U.S. shipbuilding industry by opening several new domestic shipyards and modernizing shipyard practices. The service will also look to leverage foreign shipbuilders such as Korea’s Hanwha Group, which took over the Philly Shipyard in 2024, to build noncombat ships and warship components.

The U.S. jobs market weakened toward the end of the year as labor demand slowed. (WSJ)

U.S. consumer sentiment recovered slightly in December but remained broadly gloomy. (WSJ)

Canada retail sales rebounded in November. (WSJ)

German consumer sentiment slumped to a 21-month low. (WSJ)

The U.S. Coast Guard is pursuing another oil tanker involved in transporting oil from Venezuela. (WSJ)

Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern filed an application with the Surface Transportation Board requesting approval of their proposed merger. (WSJ)

German manufacturers facing falling exports to the U.S. and China are scrambling to reinvent themselves as military vendors. (WSJ)

Arms makers Rheinmetall and KNDS are set to earn billions of euros from an order for 200 tanks from the German military. (WSJ)

Volkswagen is pausing exports of its retro electric bus to the U.S. following a sharp decline in EV sales. (WSJ)

A Paris court rejected a request from the French government to suspend Shein’s platform over the sale of childlike sex dolls. (WSJ)

Danish container line Maersk completed its first Red Sea transit in two years. (The Maritime Executive)

Germany's Hapag-Lloyd dropped plans to reinstate a Suez Canal routing for an India to U.S. service because of shippers’ concerns about cargo insurance. (Journal of Commerce)

The U.S. Senate confirmed Stephen Carmel as Administrator of the Maritime Administration. (Marine Log)

A U.S. senator asked seven U.S.-based tanker companies for information as part of a probe into fuel smuggling and money laundering by Mexican drug cartels. (Reuters)

Federal safety officials say fires aboard a bulk carrier in the North Pacific Ocean on Christmas Day 2023 were caused by improperly secured lithium-ion batteries. (gCaptain)

Macquarie Infrastructure Partners renewed its lease for the Port of New York and New Jersey’s largest container-handling facility, Maher Terminals, through September 2063. (The Maritime Executive)

A waste management truck leaked coconut oil across two roads in Yolo County, Calif. prompting closures and causing at least one vehicle to spin out. (The Sacramento Bee)

Mark R. Long is editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Reach him at mark.long@wsj.com.

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