Research >> Economics
DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer slumped by 0.9%
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For the week ending September 13 2014, the DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer slumped by 0.9 percent to 98.4, wiping out the gain of 0.7 percent from last week. The biggest factor that contributed to the performance of this week’s barometer was chain store sales, which plummeted by a sharp 2.5 percent, after three consecutive weeks of positive growth. As to the production side, almost all indexes declined, especially auto production and electric output, which fell by 7.5 and 4.3 percent, respectively.
On a year-over-year basis, the barometer showed a gain of 0.9 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, dipped slightly by 0.1 percent to 98.7. Its year-over-year growth rate was 1.2 percent.
Posted: September 25, 2014 Thursday 10:06 AM