Economy

Apologies to Our Premium-Level Subscribers
Written by Tim Triplett
January 14, 2019
When the public first learned the government was shutting down, many of us thought, “Glad I don’t work for Uncle Sam!” Now, as the shutdown extends its record as the longest in U.S. history, the effects are being felt well beyond the households of government employees. Even here at Steel Market Update. With government data suddenly unavailable, it’s impossible to update many of our regular reports. Readers may see some delays in the normal delivery of our Premium-level content. Our apologies.
As Chris Kuehl of Armada Corporate Intelligence reported in his latest newsletter, the government shutdown “is certainly making life a bit more difficult for economists and analysts. Among those who have been deemed non-essential are the legions of statisticians and researchers who collect and assess all the information that comes in to the government every hour of every day. If this shutdown drags on for much longer, there will be some substantial gaps developing in terms of what we know about the performance of the economy. Given that these are critical days of transition, this is bad timing to say the least.”

Tim Triplett
Read more from Tim TriplettLatest in Economy

Steel groups welcome passage of budget bill
Steel trade groups praised the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill (BBB) in Congress on Thursday.

Industry groups praise Senate for passing tax and budget bill
The Steel Manufacturers Association and the American Iron and Steel Institute applauded the tax provisions included in the Senate's tax and budget reconciliation bill.

Chicago PMI dips 0.1 points in June
The Chicago Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) slipped 0.1 points to 40.4 points, in June.

Multi-family pullback drives housing starts to 5-year low in May
US housing starts tumbled in May to a five-year low, according to figures recently released by the US Census Bureau.

Architecture firms still struggling, ABI data shows
Architecture firms reported a modest improvement in billings through May, yet business conditions remained soft, according to the latest Architecture Billings Index (ABI) release from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and Deltek.