Quikrete Industry Dashboard; Starts are up

Dramatic upward swings in the residential construction charts stand out as highlights of the latest version of the Quikrete Industry Dashboard. 

Total starts jumped more than 21 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.631 million in May. Single-family starts weren't far behind, up 18.5 percent for the month.

Housing starts had their best week since April of 2022.

Elsewhare on the Quikrete Industry Dashboard, sales at retailers classified as NAICS 444–the broad industry category that includes prodealers, home centers and hardware stores–increased in May on both a monthly and annual basis.

The unadjusted May 2023 figure for the class was $51.5 billion, up from $50.6 billion in May of 2022.

The latest statistics for the subset of hardware stores (NAICS 44413) are from the month of April, and show a similar year over increase. The April 2023 hardware store sales were at $3.41 billion, compared to $3.27 billion in April a year ago.

Elsewhere on the Dashboard, two ticker symbols continue to run away from the field: Builders FirstSource (BLD) is up 154 percent from one year ago. Beacon, (BECN) is up 66.9 percent over the same period.

Home Depot (HD) and Lowe’s (LOW) are both in positive territory for the month and the year.

Gas prices are holding steady at $3.58 for a gallon of regular, according to the American Automobile Association. That's up four cents from last month, but down from $4.94 one year ago. 

Coming next: The New York-based economic think tank The Conference Board will release its closely watched Consumer Confidence Index for June on Tuesday, June 27. The Index fell in May to 102.3 (1985=100), down from an upwardly revised 103.7 in April.

“Consumers also became more downbeat about future business conditions, weighing on the expectations index,” Ataman Ozyildirim, senior director of economics for The Conference Board said in the announcement of the May numbers. “However, expectations for jobs and incomes over the next six months held relatively steady. While consumer confidence has fallen across all age and income categories over the past three months, May’s decline reflects a particularly notable worsening in the outlook among consumers over 55 years of age.”