The manufacturing and industrial sectors have been hit the hardest by the US-China trade war of the past two years. But, it fell in deep contraction during the coronvirus lock-downs, with US empire State manufacturing index falling to -78.2 points in March. This index started to improve as the economy reopened, but took a bearish turn in July, as last month’s report showed. But, today’s report showed another jump for August, so thing seem to be going in the right direction in the US.

• Manufacturing index 17.0 vs. 3.7 last month
• New orders index 7.1 vs. -1.7 last month
• Shipments 14.1 vs. 6.7 last month
• Number of employees 2.6 vs. 2.4 last month
• Average workweek 6.7 vs. -6.8 last month
• Unfilled orders -9.4 vs. -14.0 last month
• Prices paid 25.2 vs. 16.0 last month
• Prices receives 6.5 vs. 4.7 last month
• Inventories -3.6 vs. -10.7 last month

The US Empire manufacturing index for September rose by a greater than expected 17.0 verse 6.8 expected. The index was at 3.7 in August. The index reached 17.2 in July only to dip lower in August . The index level this month  was the 2nd highest level since November 2018. The index is now been positive for 3 consecutive months with 40% respondents reporting that conditions had improved over the month while 23% reported that conditions had worsened.