Credit: Ken Teegardin; Flickr; CC BY-SA 2.0
Despite a dip in new orders and export sales, the Markit Flash U.S. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) was up from 55.4 to 56.2 in May.
The output index rose from 58.2 to 59.6, making May the fastest pace for output growth seen since February 2011, and according to the National Association of Manufacturers’ Shopfloor blog, a sign that American manufacturing is rebounding from “weather-related softness” earlier this year.
Decreases in new orders (58.9 to 58.2) and export sales (51.9 to 51.5) were slight, but still indicate growth, albeit at a slower rate.
Other numbers making news?
- Trending up. China’s manufacturing sales and output made a slight uptick in May. The HSBC Flash China Manufacturing PMI increased to 49.7 from 48.1 in April, welcome news after several months of slowdown.
- Trending down. Consumer confidence was down in May, according to data from the University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters. Though the Consumer Sentiment Index has averaged 81.7 for the year, May’s number was down to 81.8 from 84.1 in April.
- Trending up. After experiencing a level unseen since 2007, applications for unemployment assistance are up, but remain low enough to indicate “hiring should remain steady.”
- Trending down. The United Nations has lowered expectations for global economic growth. Forecasts from the United Nations anticipate that the global economy will grow at a slower rate in 2014 and 2015. Their revised forecasts, which take into account a “colder than usual winter in North America,” call for 2.8-percent growth in 2014, and 3.2-percent growth in 2015, down from December’s 3.0 and 3.3 percent figures, respectively. Their forecasts for the U.S., however, have not changed (2.5 percent in 2014 and 3.2 percent in 2015).
