Quikrete Industry Dashboard

The latest edition of the Quikrete Industry Dashboard shows strong gains for total housing starts, single-family housing starts and existing home sales. All three metrics show increases compared to the prior month and also compared to the same month a year ago.

Also riding high is the Stock Roundup. All 10 hardware and building supply companies tracked on the grid are not only in positive territory for the year and the month, they’re also all running ahead of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Gas prices haven’t changed much since last week or last month. The AAA reports the average price for a gallon of regular is $2.19, up a penny from last week.

Coming up: Consumer confidence will be released Aug. 25.