Research >> Economics
DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer picked up by 0.5%
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For the week ending January 25 2014, the DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer picked up by 0.5 percent following declines for four consecutive weeks. This week’s barometer was mainly driven by production side; electric output bounced back by 9.8 percent following a 9.4 percent drop in the previous week and steel production increased modestly again. Overall, there were only small ups and downs in other components.
On a year-over-year basis, the barometer showed a gain of 1.1 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, showed a 0.2 percent decline to 97.4, the lowest since November 2 2013, and continued to weaken for five consecutive weeks. Its year-over-year growth rate was 0.8 percent.
Posted: February 6, 2014 Thursday 10:00 AM