“The Index line falls back to its flattened state, as we witnessed a decline of 0.1% over last month. This was driven by some major drags on the algorithm, including continued profit-taking in the Industry Stocks metric as investors rotate out of that hot sector (-8.0%). Other downdrafts occurred in Housing Starts (-1.8%) and the Construction Backlog Indicator (-1.2%). But strengthening in other indicators bodes well for the months ahead, as the Dodge Momentum Index made an incredibly strong leap (+10.2%) along with Construction Confidence Index (+0.3%). Notably, the Pulse Index is up 5.9% year-over-year, and a very respectable 11.4% over the past 36 months.”