Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Smith Leonard: Furniture Orders up 2%
April 1,
2016 by in Economic News, Industry 
Furniture orders climbed 2 percent in January over the same month last year, according to the latest survey of furniture suppliers conducted by Smith Leonard.
New orders in January were 3 percent lower than December 2015. New orders were up for 32 percent of the survey participants, down from nearly 50 percent last month.
January shipments were off 1 percent from the same month last year, and backlogs were mostly flat from December and January a year ago.
“The current thought of most is that business slowed during the fourth quarter and has continued to slow especially in February and March,” wrote Ken Smith, managing partner with Smith Leonard. “Most of the indicators for furniture remain good — low interest rates, decent housing results, low inflation and gas prices.”