Industry Stats

Building permits and freight rail traffic are down but PMI and LEI show strength.

Prices saw some large gains in product categories that typically don’t show much monthly change.

Privately owned February housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,162,000, -8.7% below the revised January estimate .

In February, the estimated annual rate of public construction spending was +3.6% above the revised January estimate.

Despite a slight drop in March, the current conditions component remained in expansionary territory.

Significant declines in Feb. 2019 in two core electrical product categories caught our eye.

Privately‐owned housing starts in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,230,000, +18.6% above the revised December estimate.

Electrical contractors and industrial employment ended 2018 on a steady if somewhat unspectacular note, and they should drive some growth in electrical sales through the first half of 2019.

Electrical Marketing's 4Q 2018 sales potential estimates for the electrical contractor and industrial market segments for all 50 states and more than 300 metropolitan statistical areas are now available for all Electrical Marketing subscribers...