The Institute for Supply Management, an association of purchasing managers, said Monday that its manufacturing index jumped by by 3.9 percentage-points to a reading of 59.3 percent last month, up from 55.4 percent in September. It was the highest level for this closely watched barometer of manufacturing health since September 2018. Any reading above 50 signals that manufacturing is expanding. Timothy Fiore, chair of the ISM manufacturing survey committee, said that manufacturing was being helped by strong demand coming out of the spring lockups in such areas as home construction and auto sales. The new orders component of the index was also strong, rising to the highest level since 2004.-AP

Source: The Standard November 03, 2020 07:30 UTC