Manufacturing activity picks up in February
The latest manufacturing PMI from Markit came in at 55.1, up from 53.9 last month.
Expectations were for the reading to come in at 54.3, unchanged from the flash reading released earlier this month.
Monday's reading was the best for Markit's PMI in four months.
In a release, Markit said, "Growth in the U.S. manufacturing sector gathered momentum in February, with output and new orders both rising at sharper rates than seen at the start of the year. Input costs decreased marginally for the second month running, but firms continued to raise their output prices. Meanwhile, delays in the delivery of items contributed to an accumulation of backlogs of work and a record increase in finished goods stocks."
Markit's Chris Williamson said following the report:
"Manufacturing braved the cold weather in February, reporting an upturn in the pace of growth. A flurry of activity towards the month end helped raise production to a greater extent than signalled by the earlier flash reading. The upbeat survey points to minimal impact from the adverse weather that affected many parts of the country during the month. While growth of manufacturing output remained below the peaks seen last year, the survey is broadly consistent with production rising at an annualised rate approaching 4%."
Here's the latest chart of the Markit PMI reading.
