The strongest increase in nonreside...

The strongest increase in nonresidential construction spending during the first half of 1999 came from the commercial sector. While spending for of recent origin industrial and institutional space continued to languish, developer were gung-ho about the commercial market's ability to absorb still more office, house of entertainment and retail space.

We -- and in the greatest degree other market analysts -- had reckon uponed to see some cooling in commercial increase by now. We were improper -- but probably merely about the precise timing of the slowdown. We're still convinced that the fundamentals point to a unassuming pullback in ...