US manufacturing slows - but still healthy

US manufacturing slows - but still healthy. Manufacturing expanded in February at the weakest pace in a year, limited by weaker growth abroad and a work slowdown at West Coast ports. The Institute for Supply Management's index dropped to 52.9, the lowest since January 2014, from 53.5 a month earlier, the Tempe, Arizona-based group's report showed Monday. Cutbacks in demand from overseas customers and domestic energy producers led to the weakest growth in new orders since May 2013, prompting U.S. factories to slow the rate of hiring. At the same time, manufacturing is being underpinned by sustained spending from American consumers who are enjoying low prices at the gas pump. Manufacturing growth has slowed, but it's still expansionary, said Gus Faucher, senior economist at PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh, whose forecast matched the median. It's comfortably above 50 but down from where it was a few months ago. We didn't think we would sustain that pace, particularly with the slowing in global growth, but manufacturing is still expanding and adding to output. Read the full article: (VIEW LINK)