The ISM manufacturing index rose from 36.3 to 40.1 in April, surpassing the consensus estimate of 38.4. The breakdown indicates that the improvement was wide spread with significant increases in new orders (47.2 from 41.2), production (40.4 from 36.4), backlog of orders (40.5 from 35.5), employment (34.4 from 28.1), new export orders (44.0 from 39.0) and imports (42.0 from 33.0). The inventories (33.6 from 32.2) sub-index shows a limited improvement, while customer inventories (49.5 from 54.0) dropped somewhat lower. Prices paid increased slightly from 31.0 to 32.0. This is the fourth consecutive improvement in business sentiment, which clearly indicates that producers became less negative about their business conditions since the start of this year.
The final figure of Michigan consumer confidence showed a significant upward revision in the headline index. University of Michigan consumer confidence rose to 65.1, from a previous estimate of 61.9. Compared to the preliminary figure, both the economic conditions (68.3 from 66.6) and economic outlook (63.1 from 58.9) subindex were upwardly revised. The index is now at is highest level since September last year as consumers became more confident about the effectiveness of the government’s stimulus plans.
