• The three-month annualised growth rates of business equipment production and underlying capital goods shipments remained in negative territory in April, but we expect to see improvement over the second quarter (1). 
  
  
• The slump in active drilling rigs suggests that mining investment will be a drag on second-quarter business investment. That said, with oil prices rebounding, drilling rigs and mining investment should partly recover in the second half of this year (2).
  
  
• The upward trend in new home sales and housing starts suggests that residential investment will provide a modest boost to GDP growth (3). 
  
  
• Business investment has also been boosted by the recent strength of spending on intellectual property, which is much stronger than we would have expected given the economy's growth rate (4).
  
  
• While the business inventory-to-sales ratio has risen markedly (5).
  
  
• Most of the increase is linked to the decline in the value of energy sales and inventories. Excluding petroleum, the ratio has barely risen at all (6).