Research >> Economics
DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer slightly down by 0.2%
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For the week ending February 1 2014, the DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer was slightly down by 0.2 percent following a pickup of 0.5 percent in the prior week. Modest rise and fall across the board in the components were seen this week. Auto production was the only major fall, which decreased by 8.7 percent, and dragged down the barometer. With regard to consumption, chain store sales picked up slightly after the weakening trend in January. Meanwhile railroad freight carloadings continued to decrease most likely due to the inclement weather. MBA’s purchase index also declined.
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, showed no changed after declining to the lowest level since November 2 2013 last week. Its year-over-year growth rate was 0.9 percent.
Posted: February 13, 2014 Thursday 10:00 AM