Positive figures fail to impress

THE positive manufacturing figures out of Philadelphia yesterday failed to impress the markets.

It showed output at 55.6, well above the neutral 50 point. Any figure above 50 indicates growth and below 50 is a sign of decline. While the figure matched expectations, it failed to impact on the fragile investment psyche in the US, and the Dow rose by just 0.25%.

The bank also revised the previous month’s figure up significantly, which meant the last two months’ manufacturing output figures were on a par with each other in terms of positive signs of growth in production.