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DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer increased by 0.5%
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For the week ending November 16th 2013, the DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer increased by 0.5 percent from the last week to 97.8. The increase was well balanced as positive contribution came from both production indexes and consumption indexes. On production side, car production, steel, and electricity production contributed to the growth. Consumption was driven mainly by MBA’s purchase index while chain store sales were virtually flat.
On a year-over-year basis, the barometer showed a gain of 1.2 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 flat lining 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, edged up to 97.5 and recovered the level seen in mid September. Its year-over-year growth rate was 0.7 percent.
Posted: November 27, 2013 Wednesday 10:00 AM