Research >> Economics
DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer rose by 0.3%
|
For the week ending April 5 2014, the DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer rose by 0.3 percent following a sharp increase in the prior week. Most of the increase in consumption indexes stemmed from chain store sales, rising by 1.5 percent following a 3.6 percent increase. On the production side, steel production drove up the index, increasing by 3.9 percent. Auto production and electric output decreased by 9.6 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively, yet were more than offset by the increase in steel production. Other indexes generally showed slight changes.
On a year-over-year basis, the barometer showed a gain of 0.6 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 fifth consecutive week. Its year-over-year growth rate was 0.3 percent.
Posted: April 17, 2014 Thursday 10:00 AM