WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. manufacturing activity contracted in February for the fourth month in a row but signs suggest the beginning of stabilization, monthly survey results from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) released Wednesday.
The sector’s ISM index came out at 47.4 against 47.7 in January. Economists polled by Reuters on average had expected a figure of 48.0.
The new orders sub-index rose to 47.0 – moving away from the low of more than two and a half years reached in January at 42.5 – but that of employment fell to 49.1 from 50 .6 in January.
The worst could be over for the manufacturing sector. Industrial production rebounded strongly in January, as data from the Federal Reserve showed.
Orders for manufactured capital goods rose in January to their strongest in five months as shipments of those essential goods rebounded, the Commerce Department said Monday.
Another manufacturing PMI published earlier, that of S&P Global, came out slightly higher at 47.3 in the final version, against 46.9 in January and 47.8 in the first estimate.
(Lucia Mutikani, Laetitia Volga, edited by Kate Entringer)
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