More Videos
- White House Plans to Freeze Spending to Cut Deficit
- Week Ahead: Investors Go for Quality, Assess Recovery
- Hedge Fund Billionaire Paulson Reports New Citi Stake
- Cramer: 5 Earnings Reports to Watch Next Week
- Court Rejects 'Clawbacks' for Alleged Stanford Victims
- Cities With the Most Home Price Reductions
- Tax Credit Sparking First-Time Home Sales: Realtors
- Investors Cut Back US Stocks for Bigger Growth Abroad
- This Year's Biggest Thanksgiving Leftover: Cash
- Dollar is Not Plunging—So 'Calm Down': Market Strategist
- Strategists Say Markets Have More Upside — But How Much?
- Hirschhorn: Risk-Averse Traders
- Roginsky: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Financial Reform
- This Year's Biggest Thanksgiving Leftover: Cash
- TV Series Inks Unique Deal For Fight
- First Time Buyers Rescue Housing: Realtors
- Dollar General Trades Higher After Its IPO
- Fed Reform? Not So Fast.
MOST SHARED
- Today's Market Action
- Microsoft's Bill Gates Praises Apple's Steve Jobs For 'Saving the Company'
- Week Ahead: Investors Go for Quality, Assess Recovery
- Israel: Leader of Business Innovation
- Herbalife Vs. Hedge Funds
- Has Twitter's Finest Hours (Seconds) Come and Gone?
- Seeking Innovation in Health Care
- Inside Wal-Mart's Acai Berry Juice Maker
- China's Role as Lender Alters Dynamics for United States
- CNBC TRANSCRIPT: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - Keeping America Great
Text Size 
The U.S. manufacturing sector staged a surprise recovery, while consumer sentiment improved in January, but construction spending in the U.S. fell for the third month in a row, reflecting continued weakness in the housing sector.
 |
Gary C. Knapp / AP |
U.S. factory activity rose into expansion territory in January after contracting in December to the weakest since April 2003, according to an industry report released Friday.
The Institute for Supply Management said its index of national factory activity rose to 50.7 in January from 48.4 in December, and above economists' median forecast for a reading of 47.3. A reading above 50 indicates expansion.
Meanwhile, U.S. construction spending fell a sharper-than-expected 1.1 in December, led by a decline in private home construction as the housing market continued its slide, government data on Friday showed.
December's decline to a $1.140 trillion seasonally adjusted annual rate, its lowest since $1.133 trillion in July 2005, came after a revised 0.4 percent decline in November, first reported as a gain of 0.1 percent.
Analysts polled by Reuters ahead of the report were expecting construction spending to fall 0.5 percent.
Private home construction fell 2.8 percent in December to a $462.0 billion rate, the 22nd consecutive monthly decrease since a peak in February 2006.
In other declines, private construction was off 1 percent while public construction was down 1.5 percent. The only major sector to increase was private nonresidential construction, rising by 1.3 percent.
Consumer Sentiment Picks Up
Separately, U.S. consumer sentiment rose less than expected in January from December, although worries persisted over sharp declines in the stock market and the housing slump, a survey released Friday showed.
The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said its final January figure on consumer sentiment was 78.4, above December's final reading of 75.5.
However, it was down from preliminary January estimates of 80.5 and slightly below the median forecast of 79.0 in a Reuters poll.
Print
Email
- Warren Buffett and Bill Gates spoke to Columbia students, and Buffett made the students a startling offer.
- For the chief of cable company Comcast, growth has been about making deals – generally very large deals.
- Some companies may start using insurance to shift carbon risk from their balance sheets to maybe... yours?
- The president and founder of Genesis Today wants to improve America’s health, and thinks Wal-Mart can help.
- Switzerland's privacy watchdog is taking legal action to force Google to make changes to its Street View service.
- A wealthy, distracted Texas driver crashed his million-dollar Bugatti Veyron sports car into a salt marsh, say police.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes