While everyone else is talking about May construction spending versus April, the most important change taking place in the spending report every July 1st is the fact that, every year, with the release of May construction spending data on July 1, Census revises the data for all months going back the previous two years. Rarely have revisions been lower.

https://www.census.gov/construction/c30/pdf/release.pdf

Census Construction Spending July 1, 2018 data revisions:

2017 increased by $12bil, +1.0%. Most notable was a +2.5% increase to unusually low April 2017.  2017 revisions were mostly residential, up $7.5bil, +1.5%

2016 also revised up, by $6bil, +0.5%, mostly in Nonresidential Bldgs.

Nonresidential Bldgs were revised up in both 2016 & 2017. Healthcare up by ~4%/yr both years. Power revised down by ~4% both years.

Jan, Feb & Apr 2018 spending were reduced, Mar was revised up. Jan-Apr 2018 total was reduced by $2.6bil, -0.7%. Biggest move was -5% to Nonresidential Bldgs. Commercial -15%, Mnfg -5%, Office -4%, Public Safety -18%, Communication +6%

Primary reason YTD dropped from 7.6% last month to 4.3% this month is because $6bil was added to JFMA 2017. Happens every year with this Revs issue.

More to come.