Research >> Economics
DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer surged by 0.6%
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For the week ending March 29 2014, the DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer surged 0.6 percent from last week, reaching the highest level of 98.1 since January 4 2014. The biggest factor that contributed to this week’s barometer was chain store sales, which climbed by 3.6 percent. After the adverse weather lasted for the last few months, chain store sales finally started to show some recovery. On the production side, electric output increased by 2.8 percent, yet, was offset by a decrease in lumber production. Other indexes only showed slight increases and decreases.
On a year-over-year basis, the barometer showed a gain of 0.4 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, increased by 0.1 percent for the fourth consecutive week. Its year-over-year growth rate was 0.2 percent.
Posted: April 10, 2014 Thursday 10:00 AM