https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-e...SKCN1C71RJ

While a significant portion of the jump in the index is related to the hurricanes, the underlying numbers still show a stronger economy is pushing manufacturing.

Quote:Discounting the hurricanes’ impact, the outlook for manufacturing remains bullish. Seventeen out of the 18 manufacturing industries reported growth last month.

The ISM survey’s production sub-index rose 1.2 points to a reading of 62.2 in September and a gauge of new orders jumped to 64.6 in September from 60.3 in August.

Quote:Factories also reported that customers’ inventories remained at levels considered “too low” last month. The ISM said this was an indication that “downstream customers continue to operate at a high level of demand that production cannot fully satisfy.”

“While this is survey sentiment data rather than harder manufacturing production data, it does indicate the economic expansion is very much intact despite the short-term disruptions due to the hurricanes,” said Scott Anderson, chief economist at Bank of the West in San Francisco.