HOUSTON, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. industrials sector indicated a strong output upturn in January, and the rate of expansion accelerated to the fastest since August, IHS Markit's Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) showed on Wednesday.
The PMI data revealed that U.S. production in the technology sector increased markedly; however, the pace of expansion eased to the softest in six months, which means the latest upturn was still the strongest of all the monitored sectors.
Meanwhile, firms in the financial sector signaled weaker growth at the beginning of the year. The latest increase in output was the slowest since March 2016, and indicated the weakest performance of all seven monitored sectors.
For the first month since last October, the healthcare sector signaled an expansion in production, with the upturn in output being solid overall.
The basic materials sector, however, indicated a softer -- but still solid -- pace of output growth. The expansion was the weakest in five months.
The survey which released by IHS Markit last month showed that U.S. manufacturers reported a strong start to 2018, with production volumes and incoming new work both rising at faster rates than seen at the end of last year.
At the same time, export sales expanded to the largest degree since August 2016. More favorable demand conditions encouraged another robust rise in employment numbers, although the rate of job creation eased slightly from December's 39-month peak.
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