U.S. Manufacturing PMI Index Rose again to 53.3% in January

Today, the U.S. Manufacturing ISM report was published; according to the recent report, the U.S. Manufacturing PMI index rose again to 53.1% during January 2013. The U.S. Manufacturing PMI is an index estimates the economic development of the U.S. manufacturing sectors; this means the manufacturing sector has expanded compared to the previous month; the index rose from 50.7% in December to 53.1% in January i.e. a 2.4 percent point gain. This means that the U.S. manufacturing sector has expanded at a slightly faster pace than in the previous month.

Among the sectors that were analyzed in this survey: new orders, production, employment and exports. The production rose by 1 pp to 53.6 – the production has expanded at a faster pace. New orders are growing at a faster pace in January as it reached 53.3. Some items, much like the PMI, have expanded at the faster rate during last month including: inventories, employment, and prices. On the other hand, imports and exports fell, which means, they are expanding at a slower pace.

The PMI Manufacturing ISM report tends to be negatively correlated with the shifts of gold and silver prices (Roache et. al (2008)) without controlling to the U.S dollar effect. Furthermore, the shift in PMI index suppose to positively affect natural gas prices, i.e. all things being equal, including the U.S dollar, as the PMI Manufacturing ISM index rise, natural gas prices also tend to increase.

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