By Kathleen Madigan 
 

The Dow Jones-Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi-UFJ weekly business barometer declined slightly, according to data released Thursday.

The barometer slipped 0.1% in the week ended April 12, after rising 0.3% in the previous week.

The index is up just 0.4% from its year-ago reading.

A statistically smoothed version of the index increased 0.1% after a 0.2% advance in the week before.

The DJ-BTMU barometer is a weighted, 10-component index designed as a coincident measure of overall economic activity.

In the April 12 week, the components were evenly split.

The largest decline was a 4.0% plunge in steel production, reversing the 3.9% jump in the week before. A 3.4% increase in lumber production led the gainers.

Real chain-store sales fell 0.3% after strong gains in the two previous weeks.

A separate DJ-BTMU index of production trends, which is drawn from the six production-related components and which is statistically indexed to the Federal Reserve's industrial production index, fell 0.2% after rising 0.1% in the prior week.

For the full report and revisions, please see: https://reports.us.bk.mufg.jp/portal/site

Write to Kathleen Madigan at kathleen.madigan@wsj.com