Dive Brief:

• The Commerce Department's report on construction spending in June showed an annual rate of $950.2 billion, down 1.8%.
• At the same time, the first revision of data from May turned a small gain of 0.1% in spending into a bigger one of 0.8%.
• Both private and public construction were off in June, the Department of Commerce reported, and the private-sector decrease was in single-family homes, commercial buildings, communication facilities and private schools.

Dive Insight:

In his caution about not focusing too much on one month's numbers, Associated Builders & Contractors Chief Economist Anirban Basu said it was likely that April and May numbers had been higher than normal because of delayed work from the winter months, so June would look bad in comparison. "The monthly decline in spending should not be cause for significant alarm," Basu said, adding that in a year-over-year comparison, "the growth in spending looks perfectly adequate."