Despite concerns about rising costs and a lack of qualified workers, purchasing and manufacturing executives at mid-sized U.S. industrial manufacturing companies remain optimistic about revenues and employment for the balance of 2014 and going forward.

For many companies, 2015 is looking rosy. The overall economy is finally accelerating out of the worst recession since the 1930s, helped in no small part by construction as the Construction Backlog Indicator (published by Associated Builders and Contractors) reached an all-time high in June.

If one had to choose a single word to describe the M&A market in 2013, it would be disappointing, and indeed many market participants have used this very term. But the exasperated deal makers have had little time to cry in their beer - they've been too busy. The M&A market took off like a rocket in 2014, fueled by the return of the megadeal (transactions with a value of more than $10bn), which has been in hibernation for the last several years. The momentum of the first quarter carried into the second, setting up 2014 as a potential bellwether for the market's longer-term evolution.

Builder confidence in the U.S. new single-family home market was up for the fourth month in September 2014, to hit 59 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). This four-point gain elevates the index to its highest point since November of 2005.

The most recent earnings for Dollar General and Dollar Tree were healthier than rival Family Dollar's, but each one missed Wall Street's estimates as the economy has begun to improve.