NEMA's Electroindustry Business Confidence Index (EBCI) for current North American conditions rebounded in January, rising nearly nine points to 57.1 points. The index is derived from responses to a survey circulated to senior executives of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), Rosslyn, Va. A value above 50 points indicates that more respondents reported that the business environment improved from the previous month than reported that it worsened. The index had fallen below 50 points in December for the first time in five months, but this latest reading suggests that the modest improvements in conditions that characterized much of the second half of 2009 have persisted into early 2010.
Moreover, the EBCI for future North American conditions pushed further upward in January while posting its second consecutive monthly gain. Rising 14.3 points to 78.6 points, the index recorded an eleventh straight reading above 50 points, and reached its highest level since December 2004. This result reflects widespread sentiment that business conditions will improve over the next six months. Full report
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Jim Lucy Blog
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Jim Lucy has been wandering through the electrical market for more than 30 years, most of the time as an editor for Electrical Wholesaling, Electrical Marketing newsletter and CEE News. During that time he and the editorial team for the publications have won numerous national awards for their coverage of the electrical business. He showed an early interest in electricity, when as a youth he had an idea for a hot dog cooker. Unfortunately, the first crude prototype malfunctioned and the arc nearly blew him out of his parents' basement. Before becoming an editor for Electrical Wholesaling magazine and Electrical Marketing, he earned a BA degree in journalism and a MA in communications from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, NJ., which is formerly best known as the site of the 1967 summit meeting between President Lyndon Johnson and Russian Premier Aleksei Nikolayevich Kosygin, and now best known as the New Jersey state college that changed its name in 1992 to Rowan University because of a generous $100 million donation by N.J. zillionaire industrialist Henry Rowan. Jim is a Brooklyn-born Jersey Guy happily transplanted in the fertile plains of Kansas for the past 20 years.