Thursday: The economic calendar ends the week early, with weekly initial jobless claims, October's leading economic indicators and the November Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index.
Thursday: Weekly initial jobless claims, April's leading economic indicators and May's Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index are among Thursday's economic releases.
Sustainable manufacturing indicator repository (SMIR by National Institute of Standards and Technology, United States of America) was used as a guideline to establish the measurable indicators for each sustainability pillar at each mapped activities.
After analysts predicted slight declines in both economic indicators, the manufacturing index came in at 47.7 for December, down from 50.8 in November, and well shy of the 50.5 consensus estimate.
The ONS said there was some evidence that a cheaper currency was pushing up the cost of fuel and raw materials for manufacturing – an early indicator of inflationary pressure – but this had not fed into more expensive prices for consumers.
Although only an early and very partial indicator – manufacturing accounts for just 13 per cent of the economy – it suggests that the faster than forecast growth figures seen in the second and third quarters of this year may be repeated in the last months of the year.
The business activity report, issued by the Chicago arm of the National Association of Purchasing Management, may not bode well for the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index, a closely watched indicator of United States business activity.
