Quikrete Industry Dashboard

Macroeconomic data flowed freely in the middle of May, with three consecutive days of major metric announcements.

First, the United States Census Bureau reported monthly sales results for the retail industry, including building material and garden equipment supplies dealers (NAICS 444). On an adjusted basis, April NAICS 444 sales increased 0.5 percent from March. But compared to a year ago, the category’s sales were down 5.7 percent.

Retail sales were followed by housing starts. The residential construction report released May 17, also by the U.S. Census Bureau, showed the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts in April stood at 1.401 million, down 22.3 percent from April 2022.

And those releases were followed by the National Association of Realtors release of existing home sales report. On a year-over-year basis, the April seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.28 million existing-home sales are down 23.2% from a rate of 5.57 million in April 2022.

“Home sales are bouncing back and forth but remain above recent cyclical lows,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “The combination of job gains, limited inventory and fluctuating mortgage rates over the last several months have created an environment of push-pull housing demand.”

Also on the Quikrete Industry Dashboard, the stock roundup shows six of 10 ticker symbols in positive territory for the month, and seven of 10 in positive territory for the year. Leading the charge, once again, is Builders FirstSource, up more than 90 percent compared to a year ago.

Coming next: The New York-based economic think tank The Conference Board will release Consumer Confidence Index on May 30. Currently, the index stands at 101.3 (1985=100).

In an April 25 release, Ataman Ozyildirim, senior director, economics at The Conference Board, wrote:  “While consumers’ relatively favorable assessment of the current business environment improved somewhat in April, their expectations fell and remain below the level which often signals a recession looming in the short-term. Consumers became more pessimistic about the outlook for both business conditions and labor markets. Compared to last month, fewer households expect business conditions to improve and more expect worsening of conditions in the next six months. They also expect fewer jobs to be available over the short term. April’s decline in consumer confidence reflects particular deterioration in expectations for consumers under 55 years of age and for households earning $50,000 and over.”