New York manufacturing shows resilience

A barometer of New York City business activity rose off of a five-month low in April, the Institute for Supply Management said Thursday. The headline index measuring current business conditions came in at 58.3 for the month, a 7.1-point gain that almost eliminated the 7.7 point drop from February to March. The six-month outlook index "helps explain why the short-lived dips in current conditions did not turn into something more protracted," ISM said. The future outlook index for the month dipped slightly from 65.2 to 64, a fairly strong indicator of optimism in the Big Apple. For April, the employment index slipped from 57.3 to 53.3, which still indicates growth, as do all the indexes that register above 50. The manufacturing index for the city has been on an eight-month trend higher, with the exception of November 2012, when the area was recovering from Hurricane Sandy. The diffuse index measuring current business conditions has fallen below 50 only once in the past 12 months, dipping down to 48 in May 2012.