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Digg
Small-business owners turned more optimistic in April as sales expectations picked up, according to a report released Tuesday.
The Small Business Optimism Index increased 3.8 points to 90.6 last month, said the National Federation of Independent Business.
Even with the gain, the low level of the index suggests “pessimism persists,” the NFIB said.
Three quarters of economic growth, the rising stock market, low interest rates and low inflation “have obviously not been sufficient to trigger a spike in optimism,” the report said.
Even so, the NFIB noted that nine of the 10 components increased and one component–capital outlays–was unchanged.
The subindex on earnings trends jumped 12 percentage points to -31%, and the sales expectations subindex increased 9 percentage points to 6% in April.
The April employment subindex edged up 1 point to -1%. Last week, payroll giant ADP reported that its jobs survey showed small businesses–those with 49 or fewer employees–added a mere 1,000 workers in April. (Read a related article.)
More jobs may be on the way. The NFIB said 14% of firms plan to create jobs over the next three months while only 7% of respondents plan to reduce payrolls.
The inventory picture also improved.
The subindex on increasing inventories jumped 5 points to -2% and the subindex measuring whether inventories were too low increased 2 points to 1%. The business sector as a whole added to stockpiles in the first quarter, boosting economic growth.
As has been the case for a while, inflationary pressures were nearly nonexistent last month. Seasonally adjusted, the net percentage of owners raising prices was -11%, up nine points from March, but still firmly negative. The NFIB said April was the 17th consecutive month in which more owners reported cutting selling prices than raising them.
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Figures just out from “The Daily Reckoning”.
Fresh Dry Vegs prices up on last year 56.1% Fresh Fruit and melons up 28.8% Eggs for fresh use up 33.6% Beef and veal up 10.9% Dairy products up 9.7%
But there’s no inflation. Right. Why do we even read these crappy articles?
Can you believe how misleading the title of this article is? The title says optimism is rising among small business owners and then when you read it the article says just the opposite. What a bunch of baloney.
mary,
Must have been WSW!
ST, did you accidentally post to the wrong blog? Your comment has nothing to do with the article.
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