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DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer soared by 0.6%
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For the week ending March 30, 2013, the DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer soared by 0.6 percent following a flat reading in the prior week. This week’s jump resulted from a considerable rise in Chain Store Sales, which rose by 4.7 percent after dropping by 1.7 percent a week ago. Although Easter holidays shifted to earlier dates this year, the data was adjusted to offset the impact of this change, according to the data source. Production indexes, however, showed a weak growth, especially Truck Production and Electric Output dropping by 7.3 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively.
On a year-over-year basis, the barometer showed an increase of 0.5 percent, which compares to an average -3.3 percent decline over the Great Recession (determined to have ended in June 2009 according to the NBER). After flatlining in 2006, and declining from 2007 through 2009, the barometer bounced back in 2010 to rise by 3.4 percent, which was the strongest increase since 1994 (+4.0 percent), but not so impressive when compared to an -8.0 percent drop in 2009. The rate of increase for the 2012 slightly slowed to 1.4 percent following 2.2 percent in 2011.
The smoothed version of the barometer, which attempts to account for weekly volatility, increased by 0.1 percent for the fourth consecutive week. Its year-over-year growth rate was 0.5 percent.
Posted: April 11, 2013 Thursday 10:00 AM