Monday Manufacturing Round-Up

The third week of March always seems to mark the beginning of IT managers across the country slowing down their bandwidth to try to keep everyone focused on work, as opposed to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. However, heading into this week there’s some good news for home buyers and factories, but some skepticism amongst home builders. On to the links:

• The LA Times is reporting that factory out put increased last month by 0/8%. This virtually wipes out the 0.9% drop seen in January, that was largely attributed to unusual weather seen across the country.
• Market Watch has a report that takes a look at some skepticism some home builders are feeling. Some of the causes of the pessimism includes poor weather, difficulty finding lots and labor.
• As for home buyers, things seem to be looking up, so Housing Wire has a list of three things needed to be known about the 2014 housing market.
• Some good news coming from the car industry out of Michigan, as Fiat is adding 800 workers to an old Chrysler plant, in Sterling Heights. Fiat is planning on spending around $1 billion to properly retrofit the production facility.
• While things are looking up for Fiat, Tesla is having some problems with its direct sales strategy. New Jersey is the latest of three states to ban Tesla’s direct sales model.

Get those brackets done at lunch today, the madness begins on Wednesday. Here’s to a productive start to your week!