PMPA’s Index of Sales of Precision Machined Products in January 2011 was 111, its highest level in the thirty-one months since June 2008.
This is contrary to the U.S Industrial Production 0.1% decrease reported by the Federal Reserve yesterday.
http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g17/current/default.htm
Since our products are largely ‘built into’ the manufactured goods that the Fed’s Industrial Production number tracks, we believe that our Sales Index is an indicator of future continued strength in manufacturing. What we ‘sold’ in January will become part of other manufactured goods for February and March.