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"manufacturing, especially manufacturing connected to global markets, continues to restrain overall growth for the region and nation."
• The survey of business leaders and supply managers uses a collection of indexes ranging from zero to 100. Survey organizers say any score above 50 suggests growth while a score below 50 suggests decline for that factor.
• The survey covers Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
• Looking ahead six months, the February index for business confidence sank to 50.6 from January's 56.6.
• The supply managers were asked how the automatic federal budgets cuts scheduled to take affect after Friday's deadline in Washington would affect sales. More than 35 percent said they expected the cut in federal spending to cost their company some sales.
• Here's a look at the other components of the overall index:
• -- Exports remained weak, coming in at 49.2 in February, compared with 45.3 in January.
• -- Imports improved to 53.7 from 50.7 in January.
• -- Inventories dropped to 52.2 from 55.0 in January.
• Production or sales improved to 55.5 last month, compared with 53.9 in January.
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AP News in Brief
No budging on budget cuts: Combative Obama, Republicans blame each other at sequester deadline
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Gridlocked once more, President Barack Obama and Republican congressional leaders refused to budge in their budget standoff Friday as $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts bore down on individual Americans and the nation's still-recovering economy. "None of this is necessary," said the president after a sterile White House meeting that portended a long standoff.
• Obama formally enacted the reductions a few hours before the midnight deadline required by law. Yet their impact had been felt thousands of miles away well before then. In Seattle, the King County Housing Authority announced it had stopped issuing housing vouchers under a federal program that benefits "elderly or disabled households, veterans, and families with children."
• The president met with top lawmakers for less than an hour at the White House, then sought repeatedly to fix the blame on Republicans for the broad spending reductions and any damage that they inflict. "They've allowed these cuts to happen (Continued on page 23)
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