The macro economy, still looking strong. We'll look at the micro too. From American public media,

this is Marketplace.

In Baltimore, I'm Amy Scott in for Kai Rizdahl.

It's Wednesday, November 27th.

Good to have you with us.

Consumer spending gets a lot of attention this week, what with Black Friday and all.

But businesses buy stuff too.

And today, the Commerce Department is out with some new data on that spending.

New orders for durable goods, products meant to last at with some new data on that spending. New orders for

durable goods, products meant to last at least three years, increased slightly, 2 tenths percent

in October. And the Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis is out with a revised estimate of

third quarter GDP. The headline number remains the same. The economy grew at an annual rate of 2.8%. But one component

that was revised upwards, what the BEA calls non-residential fixed investment, another measure of

business spending. Marketplace's Stephanie Hughes has the details. The electrical contractor,

Kelso Burnett, is based in Chicago,

and in the last five years, the company's gotten more business installing solar panels in Illinois.

As you can imagine, out in the middle of the cornfields, you know, they're buying up some property

and they're building the solar farms. William Martin Jr. is a branch manager for the company.

To build those solar farms, his company has to

install metal pilings that support the panels. Kelso Burnett had been renting equipment to do the

work, but earlier this year, it decided to spend half a million dollars on its own pile drivers.

We see a big market in the solar field area, so dove right in and bought two machines.

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