Notes from the Trenches (30)

Article source: ConstructConnect

• Sporting events are coming out of hibernation. NASCAR drivers will be pushing pedals to the metal at Darlington Raceway, South Carolina, on Sunday May 17th. Racing teams and officials will be required to practice safe distancing and no fans will be allowed in the stands. The event will be broadcast live on TV and satellite radio.

• Seven days later, on the 24th, the famed Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race (again with no live audience) will be held, as it has been for 60 years, during the Memorial Day weekend. The Indianapolis 500 IndyCar race, though, with 200 laps over a two-and-a-half-mile track in Speedway, Indiana, has been moved to Sunday, August 23rd.

• The U.S. Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index in April sank to 86.9 from 118.8 in March (with sentiment in the rather ‘bland’ year of 1985 taken to be equal to 100.0). In the first couple of months of 2020, consumer confidence was at an index level slightly above 130. But it’s the latest value of the Present Situation Index, measuring assessments of current economic and labor market conditions, that really draws a reaction. Between March and April readings of the Present Situation Index, there was a more than 90 percentage-point drop, the greatest ever, from 166.7 to 76.4.

• The Federal Reserve is saying the U.S. manufacturing sector in March experienced the steepest decline in production since January and February of 1946, when WW II military-related output came to an abrupt halt. Manufacturing’s capacity utilization rate in the latest month for which data is available hit the skids, to land at 70.3%. March’s usage rate appears bad; know that April’s will be worse. Many factory owners, with demand in a tailspin and workers vulnerable to contagion, began shutdowns in late March. The capacity usage of the ‘motor vehicle and parts’ sector contracted by nearly a third, shifting from 77.5% in February to 55.7% in March. North American automakers are currently planning to re-open plants in mid-May. Based on China’s example, however, it will be some time before operations approach anything like previous ‘normal’.

• Note to fellow economists: stand up right now, walk to your clothes closets and take out your winter parkas in preparation. Go to bed early tonight and try for a deep long sleep. April labor market statistics for the U.S. and Canada will be released tomorrow. They’re certain to be ice cold and to demand oodles of attention and analysis.

Tags: banking, bids, cement, Construction, coronavirus, COVID-19, developers, Economy, lumber, recovery, shareknowledge, steel, tenders

Category: ConstructConnect

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