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Weakest rise in manufacturing output since October 2013
U.S. manufacturers indicated a renewed slowdown in output and new business growth during February. This contributed to a fall in the seasonally adjusted final Markit U.S. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index™ (PMI™) to 51.3, down from 52.4 in January. The headline index was up fractionally from the earlier ‘flash’ estimate in February (51.0), but this was still the second-lowest reading since October 2012. Moreover, the latest reading pointed to one of the weakest improvements in overall business conditions since the recovery began in late-2009. February data indicated that manufacturing output growth ... (full story)