May 7--HIGH POINT -- Varied and realistic was how furniture industry analyst Ken Smith reported results from the High Point Market at the High Point Economic Development Corp.'s meeting Wednesday.

As guest speaker, Smith talked about the market and general furniture industry trends.

"Expectations weren't too high," he said about entering the market.

Smith noted third-, fourth -- and first-quarter losses from public companies like Hooker Furniture, Flexsteel Furniture, La-Z-Boy and Stanley Furniture. "This is what we started with coming in to market," he said.

"Attendance was down. I don't think it was any question," Smith said, attributing some of down attendance to the change in dates.

Mayor Becky Smothers said the High Point Market Authority will release the number of attendees at market on Monday. "I think you'll be pleasantly surprised," she said.

But Smith said he heard a variety of reports from companies at market, ranging from sales being up 30 percent to down 50 percent. He talked to five or six companies who reported writing the most orders they had in the last four to five years, Smith said.

Contrarily, Smith said he also saw a lot of empty space this market. "I've never seen as many empty showrooms," he said.

But Smith said the remainder of 2009 doesn't seem to look too promising for the furniture industry, they are three months away from the same time last year when Furniture Insights, a monthly report on the industry, started reporting low numbers. Smith said he thinks this will allow for a more positive comparison.

The current edition of Furniture Insights reported some grim news mixed with some positive results. New orders in February were 18 percent below the number from the same time last year.But while new orders, shipments and other key monthly indicators were down in February compared to a year ago, most were up considerably from January. New orders were up 19 percent in February from January.

Additionally, the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index increased to 39.2 from 26.9 in March, reflecting some rise in consumer confidence. This improvement was largely based on the short-term outlook, which also improved. People anticipating business conditions will worsen over the next six months declined to 25.3 percent from 37.8 percent, and those expecting conditions to improve increased to 15.6 percent from 9.6 percent in March.

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