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DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer bounced back by 0.2%
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For the week ending April 25 2015, the BTMU U.S. Business Barometer bounced back by 0.2 percent to 99.0. This week’s recovery was chiefly driven by strong performance in chain store sales, which, fuelled by strong business gains at office-supply stores, posted a robust gain of 0.8 percent. As to the production side, gains in some indexes were entirely cancelled out by losses in others. For instance, steel production and electric output rose by 2.4 and 0.6 percent, respectively, after declining last week. But those gains were completely offset by weak performances in auto and truck production, which dipped by 8.6 and 2.6 percent, respectively.
On a year-over-year basis, the barometer showed a gain of 0.7 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, remained at 98.9. Its year-over-year growth rate was 0.7 percent.
Posted: May 7, 2015 Thursday 10:00 AM