Everyone who uses lumber in trusses understands that defects in lumber can impact truss performance in different ways. Some defects are not important but others will affect truss performance and can even cause truss failure. [For all photos, See PDF or View in Full Issue.] In the first photo,...

Beginnings always feed the temptation to look ahead and make predictions, and recent economic news, podcasts, and websites have featured their fill. 2024 went out on a fairly positive note and it was tempting to try to extend that optimism beyond the first few weeks of January. But despite...

As the Fourth Quarter got underway, there were strong signs that the U.S. economy remains resilient, despite stock market volatility and consumers beginning to express some wobbles in confidence. But the crisis in the Middle East, political divisiveness in the U.S., and chaotic developments...

A near certainty in the component business is that your customers will, to some extent at least, shop your price against your competition. Depending on the relationship history you have with your client, you may have the opportunity to match a lower price, but your competition will still be used...

The U.S. economy started the second half of 2023 with a sense of resilience and more optimism than last year at this time. Inflation has been trending downward since its peak in June of 2022; the Federal Reserve hit the ‘pause’ button on interest rate hikes; the job market has been...

At the start of a new quarter, the economy is continuing its bumpy ride toward recovery while still showing mixed signals. Forecasts going forward are for slower growth throughout the next two quarters before picking up steam in the latter part of this year and going into the next. There are...

The start of a new quarter and a new year bring with them a cautious glimmer of optimism that the economy is finally poised to begin a slow turn-around toward a gradual recovery. To be sure, many challenges remain for households that have been weathering inflation for more than 18 months. But...

The markets and the economy still face a number of challenges from lingering inflation, ongoing Fed rate hikes, and geopolitical instability. This is playing out within a context of a stock market that has declined—recent gains the exception—even if it has already priced-in a lot of...

Collect dozens of anecdotes from travels, panels, emails, and social media interactions, as I have recently, and three trends emerge to summarize the state of construction supply today: Dealers say demand remains strong, with only marginal easing of supply chain pressures. In contrast,...

The U.S. economy starts the third quarter with some strong challenges that rattled the ongoing recovery in Quarter 2 and are likely to filter through to the next few months. Among them are lingering inflation, the prospect of several additional aggressive Federal Reserve rate hikes, and...