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Sweden’s Volvo AB said its truck sales fell 10% first five months of the year, as U.S. deliveries plunged after stricter emissions standards made trucks more expensive, Bloomberg reported.

A push for lower emissions from heavy-duty trucks, coupled with grants from state and localities in order to meet Southern California’s air-quality standards, are prompting interest in and sales of new trucks in the region, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported Monday.

Existing homes sales fell in May to the lowest level in four years, while the median home price dropped for a record 10th consecutive month, the Associated Press reported.

An Alabama appeals court ruled Friday that a trucking company with headquarters in the state should not have been required to pay more than $900,000 in state use tax for trucks that were originally delivered to a terminal in Ohio, a state appeals court ruled Friday, the Associated Press reported.

Investors in trucking stocks, who watched share prices fall in the second half of 2006 and rebound this spring, are now waiting for a verdict on the U.S. economy.

The Senate last week weakened legislation that would have set mileage standards for heavy trucks, instead ordering an 18-month study of large-truck fuel economy before the government can set such standards.

Class 8 truck makers said they are offering electronically controlled air disc brakes as an option in 2007 models, promoting them as safer and easier to maintain than the drum brakes most U.S. heavy trucks use.