U.S. ISM Non-manufacturing Business expands in April. | CountingPips Forex & Currency Trading Blog

May 5, 2008 - Forex Economic News

U.S. ISM Non-manufacturing Business expands in April.

U.S. non-manufacturing business activity increased 2.4 percentage points in April according to a report released today by the Institute for Supply Management. The ISM Report on Business showed that non-manufacturing activity expanded in April for the first time in four months after contracting scores in January, February and March. The Non-manufacturing Index(NMI) registered a score of 52 percent in April after a score of 49.6 percent in March and surpassed market forecasts which were expecting an index score of a 49.1 percent. The NMI equally weights the index scores of business activity, new orders, supplier deliveries and employment and an index score below 50 is considered contracting or declining while a score above 50 is considered growth or expansion. Contributing positively to the report were increases in employment and supplier deliveries with gains of 3.9 percent and 7.0 percent, respectively. The gains in employment pushed the employment index into expansion for the month with a 50.8 percent score while the supplier deliveries index registered a 56.0 percent score. The business activity decreased for the month by 1.3 percent to 50.9 percent while the new orders index decreased by 0.1 percent to a 50.1 percent.

The U.S. dollar has been mixed against the major currencies in forex trading with a light news schedule today. The dollar has been losing ground today to the Canadian dollar, Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar while gaining ground against the British pound. The news schedule picks up later this week with interest rate decisions from the Reserve Bank of Australia, Bank of England and the European Central Bank. Other news highlights this week include European retail sales, Canadian employment changes and trade balance numbers from the U.S., Australia, France and Germany.

Tags: ism non-manufacturing, business activity, usd, us economy, forex trading, economic releases

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