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DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer increased slightly by 0.1%
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For the week ending April 4 2015, the DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer increased slightly by 0.1 percent to 98.8, extending the positive trend for three straight weeks as strong performances in consumption indexes were more than enough to offset the losses in some production indexes. Chain store sales rose by 1.0 percent following a 3.4 percent gain in the prior week. MBA’s purchase reported another important gain of 6.8 percent, after increasing by 5.7 percent last week. As to the production side, three out of six indexes reported losses, specially electric output and auto production, which dipped by 3.0 and 4.1 percent, respectively.
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, increased slightly by 0.1 percent to 98.6. Its year-over-year growth rate was 0.5 percent.
Posted: April 16, 2015 Thursday 10:00 AM