Quikrete Industry Dashboard

The latest Quikrete Industry Dashboard has a few positive highlights. Chief among are the soaring stock prices of shares of Builders FirstSource and Beacon.

The former is up more than 140 percent for the year. The latte is up more than 16 percent for the month, based on March 28 data.

Elsewhere on the Dashboard, the Consumer Confidence Index for March dipped ever so slightly to 104.7 (1985=100). The index was 104.8 in the prior month.

“March’s write-in responses showed an uptick in concerns about food and gas prices, but in general complaints about gas prices have been trending downward,” said Dana Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board. 

Coming next: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will release employment data for the month of March on April 5. Currently, the unemployment rate stands at 3.9 percent.