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U.S. NEWS A7
                                                                                                                                       Friday 2 October 2015

US Financial Front:

 Manufacturing barely expands as global economy slows 

A Boeing employee works on a horizontal stabilizer for a          New orders and produc-        sharply lower oil prices.      15-year low.
                                                                  tion both fell sharply and    The report “is yet another     Yet China’s factory activ-
Boeing 787 Dreamliner, at Boeing in Salt Lake City. The           a measure of hiring also      illustration of the devastat-  ity contracted again last
                                                                  declined, according to        ing impact that the strong     month, according to a
Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing      the ISM, a trade group of     dollar and weak foreign        survey of its purchasing
                                                                  purchasing managers. All      demand is having on the        managers. Its manufac-
managers, issued its index of manufacturing activity for          three measures still barely   battered factory sector,”      turing index inched up to
                                                                  remained in expansion ter-    Steve Murphy, an econo-        49.8 from 49.7 in August.
September on Thursday, Oct. 1. 	  (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)          ritory.                       mist at Capital Econom-        Bradley Holcomb, chair of
                                                                  U.S. manufacturers are get-   ics, said. “Things might well  the ISM’s survey commit-
C. S. RUGABER                     The Institute for Supply        ting hit by slower growth in  get even worse before          tee, said that uncertainty
AP Economics Writer               Management said Thurs-          China, the world’s second-    they begin to get better.      around precisely how bad-
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S.            day that its index of factory   largest economy, and          Nevertheless, the ... incom-   ly China’s economy is slow-
manufacturers expanded            activity fell sharply to 50.2   a stronger dollar, which      ing data on the rest of the    ing, and about the Federal
at their slowest pace in          in September from 51.1 in       makes U.S. goods more         economy are still incredibly   Reserve’s next moves, are
two years last month, held        August. That is the lowest      expensive overseas. The       upbeat.” Sales of existing     also weighing on manu-
back by faltering global          level since May 2013. Any       15 percent rise in the dol-   homes reached an eight-        facturers. The weakness
growth and cutbacks in oil        reading above 50 indi-          lar’s value in the past year  year high in July before       was widespread. Only
and gas drilling.                 cates expansion.                has also made imports         slipping in August. Ameri-     seven industries out of 18
                                                                  cheaper compared with         cans are also getting more     tracked by the index ac-
                                                                  U.S.-made goods. Oil and      confident in the economy       tually reported growth, in-
                                                                  gas drillers are also cut-    and consumer spending          cluding printing, textiles,
                                                                  ting back on their orders     has been solid. The number     furniture, food and bever-
                                                                  for steel pipe and other      of people seeking unem-        ages, paper products and
                                                                  equipment in the wake of      ployment benefits is near a    minerals.q

Applications for jobless aid
 rise, but remain near lows 

JOSH BOAK                         have yet to be frightened
AP Economics Writer               off by the slowdown in Chi-
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ap-             na’s economy and fierce
plications for unemploy-          sell-offs in the U.S. stock
ment benefits rose last           market.
week, but Americans are           “Filings at this level are in-
seeking jobless aid at his-       credibly low by historical
torically low levels con-         standards,” said Stephen
sistent with a healthy job        Stanley, chief economist
market.                           at Amherst Pierpont Securi-
The Labor Department              ties. “In fact, there has not
said Thursday that weekly         been a single weekly read-
applications for jobless aid      ing above 300,000 since
rose 10,000 to a season-          February.”
ally adjusted 277,000. The        The drop in weekly applica-
four-week average, a less         tions has reduced the total
volatile figure, declined to      number of people receiv-
270,750.                          ing benefits. There are 2.19
Applications are a proxy          million Americans collect-
for layoffs. The low level of     ing jobless aid, the small-
applications indicates that       est total since November
companies trust that the          2000. Jobless claims aver-
U.S. economy will continue        aging less than 300,000 a
to expand and will possi-         week have corresponded
bly boost hiring. The report      with net monthly job gains
indicates that employers          of roughly 200,000.q
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