December Manufacturing Rises, ISM Says

Manufacturing in the United States expanded in December, breaking a four-month string of contractions, the Institute for Supply Management said Thursday.

The 5.5 percentage point increase in the ISM’s purchasing managers’ index pushed the figure to 54.7 in December. Readings over 50 on ISM indexes indicate growth.

“The manufacturing sector rebounded in December,” J. Norbert Ore, chair of the ISM said in a release. “A strong showing in new orders drove the PMI upward, while the production index strengthened and helped push the PMI up by 5.5 percentage points.”

The new orders index rose 13.4 percentage points to 63.3 in December, and the ISM’s production index was 54.6, up 1 percentage point from November’s reading.

In November, the PMI was 49.2, the Tempe, Ariz.-based ISM said.

Economists had projected that the index would break even at 50 in December, Bloomberg reported.

In a separate economic report, the Labor Department said that initial jobless claims rose 13,000 to 403,000 last week. The four-week moving average, a tool used to steady the volatile weekly reports, rose as well – jumping 11,250 to 418,750 last week.