The US Industrial economy held steady last week (if pipeline scheduling is correct), while consumer spending.continued to grow. In the dailies (which I am including for this weeks post) there seemed to be a good, positive reaction in both consumption and production midweek following the Presidents State-Of-The-Union address.The Production Index (In terms of its 28-day moving average of gas-flow scheduling into US industrial facilities) following three weekly advances in a row was unchanged last week (121.4 vs last weeks record 121.4). In its dailies (See the "Part 7" posts on the Investor Village site) the index started the week soft but firmed extremely sharply with the Wednesday/Thursday scheduling. Fridays raw gas-flow tracking (see below) picked up 2.07 Billion Cubic Feet scheduled for delivery to US factories, a record for the tracking model.
The Consumption Index also rose (for its second week in a row) to 144.2 (from last weeks 142.9, and just shy of its record 146.5 high). In its dailies the measure (echoing the Production Index) also reached record levels on Thursday and again on Friday.
The Inventories measure (the cumulative weekly difference between the Production Index and the Consumption Index) continued in its long-term decline.
Overall, the recovery appears strongly supported by last weeks post State-Of-The-Union surge, buoyant consumer-spending, an uncharacteristically-large lead in the Consumption Index over the Production Index, and continuing declines in the Inventories measure.
-Robry825
Daily Tracking (Natural Gas Scheduled Deliveries)
=====================================
..............................Industrial..................Paperboard
Gas Day..............(Production)..............(Consumption)
-------------..............-------------------............----------------------
01/21/11...............1.915..(BCF)............31.94..(MMCF)
01/22/11...............1.951.......................33.90
01/23/11...............1.958.......................33.80
01/24/11...............1.950.......................33.80
01/25/11...............1.983.......................32.42
01/26/11...............2.000.......................37.10
01/27/11...............2.051.......................41.38
01/28/11...............2.073.......................42.63
01/29/11...............2.064i......................39.36i
