Research >> Economics
DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer unchanged%
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For the week ending June 9, 2012, the DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer remained unchanged from the last week. Continuous declines were seen in Chain Store Sales and Steel production over seven weeks and four weeks, respectively. Electric Output decreased by -6.4 percent as well as Auto production which showed a slight drop by -1.1 percent. In contrast, MBA’s Purchase Index increased to a large extent by +12.8 percent. Truck production also jumped by +15.6 percent following -13.1 percent decrease in the prior week.
On a year-over-year basis, the barometer increased by +1.7 percent, 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 flatlining 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 barometer increased by +2.2 percent in 2011 at a somewhat slower pace compared to 2010.
The smoothed version of the barometer, which attempts to account for weekly volatility, decreased by -0.1 percent in the week ending June 9th while its year-over-year growth rate increased by +1.5 percent.
Posted: June 21, 2012 Thursday 10:00 AM