Data delivered: Confidence, stocks and more

The Consumer Confidence Index slipped in February, but still remains above the 1985 baseline of 100.

The closely watched retail and industry metric is one of the latest updates to the Quikrete Industry Dashboard. Also this week: industry stocks showed increased negativity when compared to last month and last year.  

Now at 102.9 (1985=100), the closely watched industry metric is down from a downwardly revised 106.0 in January.

The decrease in the Consumer Confidence Index from 106.0 in January to 102.9 in February “reflected large drops in confidence for households aged 35 to 54 and for households earning $35,000 or more,”  said Ataman Ozyildirim, senior director, economics at The Conference Board, the New York-based economic think tank.

The Conference Board also found:
• 17.8% of consumers said business conditions were “good,” down from 19.9%.
• 17.7% said business conditions were “bad,” down from 19.0%.

[For more details click here.]

On the Stock Watch, two of the ten ticker symbols appear in the top-right growth quadrant, reflecting gains for both the year and the month —  BLDR and BECN. The quadrant with the most action this week is the bottom-left, reflecting losses for the month and the year.

An immediately noticeable from the chats on the Quikrete Industry Dashboard is the downward trend of residential construction and existing home sales. Existing home sales slipped 0.7 percent in January to a rate of 4.0 million.

The report, from the National Association of Realtors, also pointed to the median sales price of an existing home at $359,000, up 1.3. percent year over year. This marks 131 consecutive months of year-over-year increases, the longest-running streak on record.

(For more from the NAR, click here.)