February has ushered in a number of economic reports with almost all signaling an improving economy. The Wells Fargo Small Business Index started the good news rolling at the end of January reporting that the latest index improved 20 points over November 2012 “indicating an improvement in optimism since the November elections.” According to the survey, key drivers for the improvement include “increased business owner optimism about revenues, capital spending, and jobs over the last 12 months and more optimism about their overall financial situation, revenues, cash flow, and jobs over the next 12 months.”
In addition, for the first time since the financial crisis erupted, the Dow Industrial Average topped 14,000.On top of the strong Dow performance, economists are predicting job growth “to continue in 2013 at roughly the same pace as last year when the economy added 2.2 million jobs. Further good news has experts predicting the unemployment rate will end the year at 7.5%.,” CNN Money reported. 157,000 new jobs were added in January and the Labor Department has also sharply revised its job growth numbers for the final quarter of 2012 reporting over 600,000 jobs were created.
The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) non-manufacturing index recorded a reading of 55.2 “from a 10 month high of 55.7 in December.” The ISM reports that any reading over 50 signal expansion. However, echoing other employment indicators, the ISM’s “employment gauge was the strongest in seven years.”
The strong bounce back we are seeing in the DOW, the improving employment picture, and the increasing optimism of small business owners, is also reflected in our business activity here at TEQlease Capital. Since Congress passed the Fiscal Cliff Deal in January, we are seeing an uptick in financing applications and speaking to a lot of prospects about how leasing makes sense for their upcoming capital expenditures.