Quikrete Industry Dashboard - (Week 42, 2024)

The Week 42 edition of the Quikrete Industry Dashboard shows U.S. average gas prices are down ($3.19) again from last month ($3.21). Pump prices have dropped considerably compared with last year's nationwide average of $3.57 in mid-October 2023, per AAA.

Also on the Quikrete Industry Dashboard, the unadjusted September sales for NAICS 444 entities were $39.914 billion, down from $42.946 billion in August. Despite the dip, September 2024's figures track almost exactly with September 2023's (unadjusted) sales of $39.883 billion. Meanwhile, NAICS 44413 (hardware stores) sales figures rose in September ($3.81 billion) from August ($3.61 billion). 

Overall housing starts also sank slightly in September (1,354,000) compared to August's adjusted figure of 1,361,000, but September's single-family starts rose (1,027,000) compared to August's 1,000,000. 

In industry stock news, Builders FirstSource (+74.6 percent), Masco (+71.2 percent) and Sherwin-Williams (+61.9 percent) are the highest risers so far in 2024. Beacon, Lowe's and Home Depot, meanwhile, experienced notable jumps from last month.