Research >> Economics
DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer increased 0.7%
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For the week ending March 5, 2011, the DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer rebounded by +0.7 percent following a drop of -0.5 percent in the prior week. Nine of the barometer’s 10 components improved in the latest week with the exception of railcar loadings, which is a measure of business shipments. More than half of the barometer’s increase (+0.4 percentage points) came from inflation-adjusted chain store sales in a sign that consumers, as yet, are not curbing spending in a noticeable way in order to deal with rising gas prices. The next largest contributor to growth was mortgage applications, which jumped by more than 12 percent in the week ending March 5th.
On a year-over-year basis, the barometer picked up to +3.5 percent in the week ending March 5, 2011, 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%), but not so impressive when you compare it to an -8.0 percent drop in 2009.
Posted: March 17, 2011 Thursday 10:00 AM