Medical stocks saw most dramatic up tick

"Although total investments are still down more than 60 percent from a year ago, these small, month-to-month improvements offer some light at the end of the tunnel for manufacturing."

Over the past week the Product Design & Development Stock Index rose to a 3-month high of 1330.51. This is up more than 50 points from last week's 1278.11 posting. During the same timespan the Dow Jones is up about 130 points, but the closing bell yesterday showed lower than Monday's high of 8102.41, finishing at slightly better than 7900.

Looking at each of the five segments covered by the PD&D Index, medical stocks saw the most dramatic up tick, improving its cumulative value by more than 18 points from a week ago. More specifically, surgical device manufacturers Zimmer (ZMH) is up $4.32 from a week ago, and Smith & Nephew (SNN) posted gains of $3.55/share.

Industrial is up more than 17 points. Leading the way are Rockwell (ROK) with a $4.23 increase per share, and Grainger (GWW), which saw a $7.69 improvement. Spurring this growth could be an improved internal investment strategy from U.S. manufacturers. According to The Association For Manufacturing Technology, manufacturing technology consumption increased 28.5 percent between January and February.

Although total investments are still down more than 60 percent from a year ago, these small, month-to-month improvements offer some light at the end of the tunnel for manufacturing, and the significant contributions this sector has made to unemployment numbers over the last six months.

The aerospace segment saw a slight improvement of nearly $3, but most of this can be attributed to the gains of jet builder Embraer (ERJ), at $2.66/share. The automotive stock index is up $6.60 from a week ago, led by improvements from Toyota. Parts supplier Federal Mogul (FDML) continues to be worthy of attention, as its stock value climbed over $10 this week for the first time since October 3 of last year.

Nearly flat across the board, the consumer electronics index is up about 8 points, with Apple seeing its highest stock price since last September. The trends in this segment seem to indicate that greater fluctuation will occur with those products and companies that enhance base products or draw from discretionary income, whereas hardware that doesn't need to be updated or operated with additional accessories are more stable, and growing. While many add-ons or software upgrades are being delayed as long as possible, core products are still being purchased.