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DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer dipped by 0.3%
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For the week ending January 17 2015, the DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer dipped by 0.3 percent to 98.6 after a short-lived recovery in the prior week. This week’s barometer was mainly driven by weak performances in consumption indexes, in which chain store sales decreased by 1.1 percent, extending the falling trend for three consecutive weeks. As to the production side, auto, truck and lumber production reported moderate gains; although it was almost entirely offset by minor losses in electric output and coal production.
On a year-over-year basis, the barometer showed a gain of 1.9 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, declined by 0.1 percent to 98.8. Its year-over-year growth rate was 1.1 percent.
Posted: January 29, 2015 Thursday 10:00 AM