Confidence check on the Dashboard
The latest version of the Quikrete Industry Dashboard reveals momentum toward a more positive business environment.
Most recently, Consumer Confidence budged upward.
The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index increased slightly in March to 104.2 (1985=100), up from an upwardly adjusted 103.4 in February. A year ago, the index stood at 107.6.
The Present Situation Index—based on consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions—decreased to 151.1 (1985=100) from 153.0 last month. The Expectations Index—based on consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions—ticked up to 73.0 (1985=100) from 70.4 in February (a slight upward revision). However, for 12 of the last 13 months—since February 2022—the Expectations Index has been below 80, the level which often signals a recession within the next year. The cutoff date for the survey was March 20th, about ten days after the bank failures in the United States.
Meanwhile, the charts on the left side of the dashboard show residential construction numbers took a turn for the better, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts for February came in at 1.450 million, that’s up 9.8 percent from January.
Compared to February of 2022, however, starts were down 18.4 percent.
Also on the latest version of the Quikrete Industry Dashboard, single-family starts turned up slightly, but remain at a low-voltage pace of 830,000. A year ago, single-family starts were running at 1.213 million.
Read more about the residential construction stats here.
Elsewhere on the Dashboard, charts show sales at companies classified as NAICS 444 – building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers—rose slightly in February, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Meanwhile, sales for the retail subset of hardware stores (NAICS 44413) showed year-over-year gains for January. (Note: January is the latest available month for NAICS 44413 sales statistics.) For the month of January, on an unadjusted basis, hardware stores generated $2.93 billion in sales, up from $2.73 billion in January of 2022.
The majority of ticker symbols tracked on the Stock Roundup took a noticeable shift into the bottom left quadrant, marking declines for the year and the month. BLDR and TSCO were the only two symbols with gains for the year, based on March 30 prices.
Gas prices increased slightly to $3.50 for a gallon of regular, according to the tally from the American Automobile Association. A year ago, that same gallon sold for an average price of $4.23.
