Industry
Two windows on the productive economy: the hard data (industrial production, capacity utilization, factory orders, capital-goods shipments, and electricity generation) and the survey data (ISM Manufacturing & Services PMIs, plus the Cass Freight Index). Hard data tells you what factories are actually shipping; surveys tell you what purchasing managers are seeing in real time, often weeks ahead of the official numbers.
Manufacturing & Production
Industrial Production (M-M and Y-Y), Capacity Utilization (Total + Manufacturing), Factory Orders (Total / Core / Core Durable), Capital Goods Shipments (with the Core Capex gauge analysts watch), and total Electricity Net Generation against the CPI Electricity index. Source: Federal Reserve G.17 + Census M3 + EIA Monthly Energy Review + BLS via FRED.
Surveys (ISM & Cass)
ISM Manufacturing PMI (1948- long-run history + Employment / New Orders / Backlog / Prices Paid components), ISM Services PMI (Composite + Employment / New Orders / Prices since 1997), and the Cass Freight Index Y-Y% (since 1990). A composite Mfg-vs-Services overlay shows whether the whole economy is expanding. Source: ISM + Cass Information Systems (subscription data, monthly CSV updates).