By CountingPips.com
U.S. Manufacturing data, released today by the Institute for Supply Management, showed that January’s manufacturing activity increased more than expected and grew for the sixth straight month. January’s ISM Report On Business index reading for economic activity rose to 58.4 from December’s reading of 55.9 and marked its highest level since 2004. 
According to the report, the overall U.S. economy expanded for the ninth straight month in January.
A score above 50 percent is considered to be growth and less than 50 percent is considered to be contraction in that sector. Market forecasts were predicting a reading of 55.6 for the month.
Norbert J. Ore, chairman of the ISM Business Survey Committee, stated in the report that, “The manufacturing sector grew for the sixth consecutive month in January as the PMI rose to 58.4 percent, its highest reading since August 2004 when it registered 58.5 percent. This month’s report provides significant assurance that the manufacturing sector is in recovery. Both the New Orders and Production Indexes are above 60 percent, indicating strong current and future performance for manufacturing.”
The indexes for new orders, production, employment, supplier deliveries, prices, imports, exports, backlog of orders and inventories all showed increases for January while customer inventories fell for the month.
The new orders index increased by 1.1 percentage points to a reading of 65.9 in January and has increased for seven consecutive months while production rose by 6.5 percentage points to a 66.2 score and has advanced for eight straight months.
US Dollar mixed in Forex Trading.
The U.S. dollar has been mixed in forex trading today against the other major currencies after the manufacturing data. The dollar has gained today versus the British pound and Japanese yen while falling against the euro, Canadian dollar, Swiss franc, New Zealand dollar and the Australian dollar at 1:15 pm EST according to currency data by Oanda.
The U.S. stock markets have been trading higher today with the Dow Jones rising by over 85 points, the Nasdaq increasing over 14 points and the S&P 500 up by over 10 points at time of writing. Oil has edged higher by $1.00 to $73.89 while gold is up by $17.300 to trade at the $1,100.30 per ounce level.
USD/JPY 1H Chart – The dollar gaining today versus the Japanese Yen today in forex trading. The USD/JPY has risen today on increased risk appetite in the markets. This pair has ascended back above the 90.00 level after spending most of last week below this level.
