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BTS sales index – September 2018 update

Published on: September 2018

Written by:
Molly MacLean

We created the BTS Sales Index to give a simple and easy-to-understand predictive monthly metric that gives enterprise leaders the right vantage point by which to view their critical business decisions.

BTS Sales Index September 2018 Update: +1.2

BTS Sales Index September 2018: 109.2 (+1.2%)

August 2018* in the economy

  • Aggregate revenue of BTS 1000 increased from $3.356 to $3.395 trillion in August, $38 billion in growth
  • Factory growth hit a 14-year high due to an increase in new orders
  • Imports from China remain high, although tariffs are expected to negatively impact imports in the coming months
  • Stock market indexes broke consecutive records, aided by Amazon and Alphabet’s strong performance
  • Consumer confidence remains up, posting the highest number since October 2000
  • Keep an eye out for expected interest rate increases at the end of the month

*the September update is reflective of August 2018 data

Why

Traditional metrics, such as the quarterly GDP numbers and the S&P 500, available to understand the sales health of the US market are often not updated with new data quickly enough or are too skewed towards investor interests. Therefore, we created the BTS Sales Index, which gives a simple and easy-to-understand predictive monthly metric for enterprise and sales leaders to base critical business decisions on.

What

The BTS Sales Index represents the aggregate total revenue of the 1,000 largest publicly traded companies in the US in one simple to understand number.

How

As mentioned above, the BTS Sales Index is comprised of the total revenue of the largest 1,000 publicly traded companies incorporated in the US. Every month, we collect the total revenue reported by these companies and run the data through our custom-built indexing tool. The index uses the total revenue of the BTS 1,000 companies at the end of the second quarter of 2013 as its baseline because the economy showed signs of stable recovery. Unemployment was back to normal rates, housing prices remained steady, and stock prices were back to record levels.