Research >> Economics
DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer increased by 0.5%
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For the week ending March 2, 2013, the DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer increased by 0.5 percent following a slight decrease a week before. The pickup this week mainly stemmed from the consumption side but even the most of the production indexes, excluding Lumber Production, showed improvements. The biggest contribution to the barometer was from MBA’s Purchase Index, which increased by 15% following decreases for three consecutive weeks. Railroad Freight Carloardings also increased, offsetting the decrease in the previous week. In production, Electric Output rose substantially for the third consecutive week, climbing to the level unseen since August 2012.
On a year-over-year basis, the barometer showed a increase of 1.0 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 rate of increase for the 2012 slightly slowed to 1.4 percent following 2.2 percent in 2011.
The smoothed version of the barometer, which attempts to account for weekly volatility, rose marginally by 0.1 percent at the same pace for three weeks in a row. Its year-over-year growth rate was 0.5 percent.
Posted: March 14, 2013 Thursday 10:00 AM