For the week ending January 3 2015, the DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer declined by 1.8 percent to 98.5. This week’s barometer was driven by both consumption and production indexes. Chain store sales (inflation-adjusted basis) fell by 3.7 percent. As to the production side, electric output dropped by 6.3 percent. Auto and truck production also decreased.

On a year-over-year basis, the barometer showed a gain of 1.8 percent, which compares to an average -3.3 percent decline over the Great Recession (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 2013 slowed to 0.7 percent following 1.5 percent in 2012.

The smoothed version of the barometer, which attempts to account for weekly volatility, fell by 0.3 percent to 99.4. Its year-over-year growth rate was 1.2 percent.