Research >> Economics
DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer decreased by 0.1%
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For the week ending May 24 2014, the DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer decreased slightly by 0.1 percent from last week, reaching the lowest level of 97.7 since March 22 2014. The decrease in this week’s barometer is due to weak performances in both production and consumption indexes. Chain store sales and MBA’s purchase index in the consumption side fell by 1.2 and 1.1 percent, respectively. As to the production side, electric output and lumber production dropped by 2.8 and 1.2 percent, respectively, more than offsetting increases in auto and truck production.
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, decreased by 0.1 percent for four weeks in a row. Its year-over-year growth rate was 0.4 percent.
Posted: June 5, 2014 Thursday 10:00 AM