Quikrete Industry Dashboard

The industry waited patiently for the government shutdown to end and the flow of housing-starts data to resume. Its patience was not rewarded with positive statistics. Housing starts for December were down significantly. Elsewhere on the Industry Dashboard, Consumer Confidence for February increased from January to an index reading of 131.4, slightly higher than its reading from a year ago.

Lynn Franco, senior director of economic indicators at The Conference Board, which produces the Consumer Confidence Index, had this to say: “Looking ahead, consumers expect the economy to continue expanding. However, according to The Conference Board’s economic forecasts, the pace of expansion is expected to moderate in 2019.”