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DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer picked up by 0.3%
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For the week ending November 8 2014, the DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer picked up by 0.3 percent to 98.2, after several weeks of weak trend. The recovery in this week’s barometer was driven by both consumption and production indexes. Chain store sales bounced back by 1.5 percent following a 1.6 percent drop in the last week. MBA’s purchase index also rose by 1.1 percent. As to the production side, electric output and truck production posted the largest increases, with rates of 6.7 and 4.2 percent, respectively.
On a year-over-year basis, the barometer showed a gain of 0.9 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 98.1. Its year-over-year growth rate was 0.6 percent.
Posted: November 20, 2014 Thursday 02:01 PM