US manufacturing activity finally up

'bout damn time...hope it holds..

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks raked in gains in late morning trade on Thursday, boosting major market gauges more than 2 percent, as a pickup in manufacturing activity fanned hopes that 2003 will snap Wall Street's three-year losing streak.
Activity in the battered U.S. factory sector jumped in December after three months of declines. The Institute for Supply Management said its index of manufacturing business conditions rose to 54.7 from 49.3 in November, blowing past expectations. In the survey, 50 marks the threshold between growth and contraction.

The surprisingly strong report lifted investor sentiment during the first trading day of 2003. Stocks on Tuesday had wrapped up their first three-year losing streak since the period between 1939 and 1941, capped by the worst December performance by the Dow since 1931.

It would be interesting to know how well new machine tools are selling within the United States and what percentage are being exported.

On the evening news they said we were trying to get our troops deployed in the mideast within 6-8 weeks for Iraq,but the deployment was not on schedule.

Once summer arrives in Iraq,the troops and machines will be fighting the heat also unlike Desert Storm.