By Kathleen Madigan
The Dow Jones-Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi-UFJ weekly business
barometer declined slightly, according to data released
Thursday.
The barometer slipped 0.1% in the week ended April 12, after
rising 0.3% in the previous week.
The index is up just 0.4% from its year-ago reading.
A statistically smoothed version of the index increased 0.1%
after a 0.2% advance in the week before.
The DJ-BTMU barometer is a weighted, 10-component index designed
as a coincident measure of overall economic activity.
In the April 12 week, the components were evenly split.
The largest decline was a 4.0% plunge in steel production,
reversing the 3.9% jump in the week before. A 3.4% increase in
lumber production led the gainers.
Real chain-store sales fell 0.3% after strong gains in the two
previous weeks.
A separate DJ-BTMU index of production trends, which is drawn
from the six production-related components and which is
statistically indexed to the Federal Reserve's industrial
production index, fell 0.2% after rising 0.1% in the prior
week.
For the full report and revisions, please see:
https://reports.us.bk.mufg.jp/portal/site
Write to Kathleen Madigan at kathleen.madigan@wsj.com