CHARLOTTE, NC—Touting a rebound in manufacturing jobs, President Obama announced a public-private partnership to expand that momentum. He unveiled a manufacturing innovation institute in North Carolina, the first of three similar hubs he proposed in last year’s State of the Union address.
Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in October for the fifth consecutive month, and the overall economy grew for the 53rd consecutive month, according to the latest data from the Institute for Supply Management.
NEW YORK—A new exchange-traded fund focusing on robotics and automation companies was launched on the NASDAQ Thursday. The ROBO-STOX Global Robotics and Automation Index ETF (Ticker Symbol: ROBO) closed at $24.94 per share.
WASHINGTON—For 2013 as a whole, manufacturing production should increase 3.1 percent from 2012, according to the Manufacturing Alliance for Productivity and Innovation. Manufacturing is predicted to grow 3.6 percent in 2014, 0.8 percentage points faster than the overall economy.
WASHINGTON—Orders for the factory goods that signal business investment plans jumped last month by the most in more than a year, suggesting companies are confident about their business prospects. Orders for so-called core capital goods, which include industrial machinery, construction equipment and computers, rose 6.3 percent in January from December.
WASHINGTON—U.S. sales of machine tools totaled more than $5.7 billion in 2012, a 2.6 percent increase compared with 2011 and the highest total since 1996.
WASHINGTON—US sales of machine tools are up 5.3 percent in the first 10 months of 2012 compared with the same period in 2011, according to the AMT—The Association for Manufacturing Technology.
WASHINGTON—U.S. businesses and government agencies will finance more than $742 billion in equipment acquisitions in 2013, a record total, according to the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation.
