Manufacturing Activity for July Grows

NEW YORK - Manufacturing activity grew at a faster pace in July than in the previous month, driven by new orders and increased production, a private research group said Monday.

The Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index rose to 56.6 last month, up from 53.8 in June and greater than the 54.1 that analysts were expecting.

It was the 26th consecutive monthly increase in the index. A reading of 50 or above in the index means the manufacturing sector is expanding. A figure below 50 represents a contraction.

I notice when this kind of news is reported on air, television or radio, there is always some kind of spin on how this might actually NOT be good news. Remember whenever Clinton was being reported on any of the mainstream outlets there would be a ticker tape of the DOW underneath his picture during the .com extravaganza? They were almost wetting their pants!

I hate the MSM.

...It was the 26th consecutive monthly increase in the index....

Either the unnamed AP writer screwed up or there's more than one ISM manufacturing index. The July Manufacturing ISM Report On Business^®has the past year showing US manufacturing coming out of a dip.

That's all the data they're willing to part with for free. They won't even tell you how or why they calculate the damned index. I've never had much respect for these proprietary data sites.

Fortunately with a bit of digging I found some back data at a congressional website and it seems this past year has been pretty good for manufacturing.

We've been holding solid in the 50-60 range and it looks like we'll be there for the foreseeable future.

Looking at the 99-00 collapse in manufacturing and the recovery that even 9/11 couldn't stop, it really puts the lie to all the crap we're hearing from the "US manufacturing's dead" crowd.

Perspective is everything-- that's why I much prefere BLS manufacturing numbers where we can check out the trends. Which is probably also why the MSM just loves these loopy proprietary indexes.

You're a genius-- that's got to be it!

IOW, it's 26 months over 50 meaning 26 months of expanding activity according to the 'secret' formula used by the ISM. There's a different formula that actually works and isn't so 'secret'. It's MSM + FR = useful information.

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