Construction activity up during July

NEW YORK — U.S. manufacturing expanded for the 14th consecutive month in July, boosted by new orders and higher production, the Institute for Supply Management said Monday.

The institute said its manufacturing index registered 62.0 last month, up from 61.1 in June. That was in line with the consensus forecast of analysts.

An index reading above 50 indicates expansion, while one below 50 indicates that manufacturing activity is contracting. The gauge has been above 50 since June of last year.

“July represents a good start for the third quarter, and the outlook continues to be very encouraging as new orders and production accelerated during the month,” Norbert J. Ore, chairman of the institute’s survey committee, said in a statement accompanying the report.

The nation’s economic expansion appeared to slow at the end of the second quarter, and the manufacturing survey is the first indication that growth could pick up again in the third quarter.

Thomas Duesterberg, president and chief executive of the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI in Arlington, Va., called the report “pretty unabashedly positive.”

In Washington, the Commerce Department reported that construction spending slipped 0.3 percent in June after expanding a revised 0.1 percent in May. The industry is particularly sensitive to interest rates, which have been on the rise since spring.

The construction report was weaker than economists expected and represented another sign that the economy hit a rough patch early in the summer.