Wholesale reveneus likewise ended the year on a monthly uptick.
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Using charts from our 4Q23 Baird-MDM Survey conducted in the first half of January, we illustrate what this year's sales growth expectations are for distributors across five key customer end markets.
Find a wealth of data and analysis extracted from the 4Q23 Baird-MDM Industrial Distribution Survey, including trending charts and figures for revenue and expectations, plus plenty of interesting commentary.
January's figure still indicated contraction for a 14th consecutive month, but at a much slower pace than almost all of 2023.
The value of 2023 total construction was up 7.0% from 2022.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell suggested that a rate cut issued at his committee's March 19-20 meeting is unlikely.
Exports of industrial supplies saw a healthy rebound from a November decline.
Following their biggest gain in 28 months during November, orders were virtually unchanged in December.
While the figure decelerated from 3Q23’s robust 4.9% growth, it easily topped forecasts and suggested continued economic resilience.
AMT said aerospace and automotive markets are still working on an impressive backlog and sales that will keep shops busy well into 2024.
The indexes of business equipment, construction supplies and business supplies all registered slight monthly declines in December.
Our latest forecast called for downward revisions, snapping a three-month streak of optimistic revenue trends.
U.S. Construction input prices continued to fall in December primarily due to plunging oil prices.
"Core inflation" ticked up 0.2% during the month, but ended the year with almost half the annual increase as 2022 did.
However, "Core inflation" was identical to November on a monthly basis and slightly decelerated year-over-year.
Wholesale inventories were unrevised from the advanced report, down 0.2% from October.
Through November, year-to-date were down 13.3% from the same period in 2022.
Orders bounced back from a down October for their third gain in four months.
The distribution and supply chain sector saw healthy month-to-month growth in project counts, with Texas leading the way geographically.
Nonetheless, it was the 14th straight month of overall manufacturing contraction overall — the longest such stretch since 2002.