Research >> Economics
DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer increased by 0.1%
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For the week ending March 8 2014, the DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer increased slightly by 0.1 percent following a 0.4 percent rise in the prior week. Decreases in production indexes were more than offset by increases in consumption indexes, in particular, chain store sales, rising by 1.3 percent. Meanwhile, railroad freight carloadings declined by more than 1 percent for two weeks in a row. Production side was dragged by auto production and steel production, which dropped by 6.2 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively, while electric output increased by 3.9 percent.
On a year-over-year basis, the barometer showed a gain of 0.5 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, continued to remain at 97.3 and hasn’t increased since December 21 2013. Its year-over-year growth rate was 0.3 percent.
Posted: March 20, 2014 Thursday 10:00 AM