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America is making stuff again.

The Wall Street Journal‘s Jack Hough wrote an article about the hot new idea economists are buzzing about: the American manufacturing boom.

Hough spoke to Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist Neil Dutta who identified three trends that lay the foundation to a coming American manufacturing renaissance.

First, the cost advantages of outsourcing factory work are narrowing. Emerging market wages, while still much lower than U.S. wages, are rising, and high oil prices have made shipping more expensive. That is expanding the range of goods U.S. factories can produce at competitive prices (think sophisticated machines, not toys).

Second, a weakening dollar makes U.S. goods more attractive to foreign buyers. The dollar has fallen by nearly one-third over the past decade against a basket of currencies including the euro, British pound and yen.

Third, energy production is booming in the U.S., and domestic natural-gas prices have recently plunged. That gives an edge to U.S. producers of fabricated steel, transportation equipment, machinery and chemicals, which use natural gas extensively, according to a recent report from Citigroup.

Meanwhile, economist Tyler Cowen is out with a similarly-themed essay on America’s great export boom. He also cites three big bullish factors: Domestic energy, huge demand from growing emerging markets, and artificial intelligence that are helping to solve big manufacturing problems.

Bottom line: This is definitely a hot line of thinking across financial and academic circles.

SEE ALSO: CITI: These 6 Trends Should Make You A ‘Raging Bull’ On America >

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See Also:

• Bank Of England Holds Interest Rates Steady And Keeps Bond Purchase Levels Unchanged
• Challenger: Layoffs Fall To A 10-Month Low
• Apartment Vacancy Rate Sinks To A 10-Year Low

ORIGINAL: European markets moved higher this morning, led by banks and mining companies.

Early into trading, the DAX is up 0.62 percent, the CAC 40 is up 0.64 percent, and the only market in the red is the Spanish IBEX 35, down 0.27 percent.

The biggest news out of Spain so far this morning is that the government will pare back financial assistance to unions by 33 percent, even as unemployment continues to shoot higher.

Peripheral bond demand is also relatively unchanged so far today, after yields shot up for Italy and Spain yesterday. Those yields have fallen slightly early in the trading day. 

U.S. futures are also up slightly.

Today’s rally could have been influenced by an overnight rally in the Shanghai Composite.That closed up 1.74 percent, despite losses in the Nikkei and Hang Seng.

UPDATE: Scratch that optimism. European markets just fell across the board, moving into negative territory. Bond yields in Italy and Spain have begun to climb.

This development appeared to follow a French bond auction. According to Bloomberg’s Linda Yueh, the country sold €8.439 billion in bonds—near the top end of its target range. Yields on ten-year bonds rose from 2.91 percent in March to 2.98 percent today. Yields on five-year issues also rose, but those on 15- and 30-year bonds fell.

Still to come at 7 AM EST is an important decision from the Bank of England, which will decide whether or not to continue quantitative easing as its current asset purchase program winds down.

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See Also:

• Europe Explodes Higher As Financial Ministers Meet Over Bailout Funds
• SocGen: Spanish Home Prices Could Tumble By 15% And That’s Bad News For Banks
• European Markets Get SLAMMED And Bond Yields Soar

Thursday is jobs day in the U.S., which represents the last measure of the employment picture before the nonfarm payrolls report on Friday.

Here’s what you need to know.

• China starts things off at 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday evening with a reading of services PMI. The index last read at 53.9. There is no consensus estimate for the March report.
• Swiss consumer prices follow at 3:15 a.m. on Thursday morning. Economists anticipate prices increased 0.4 percent during the month, a 10 basis point acceleration from February.
• British industrial production is set for release at 4:30 a.m. Industrial production is expected to gain 0.4 percent in February, while manufacturing increases 0.1 percent. 
• At 6:00 a.m. a reading of German industrial production is set for release, with expectations for a 0.5 percent contraction in February.
• The Bank of England will release a monetary policy decision at 7:00 a.m. Economists polled by Bloomberg do not anticipate an interest rate or asset purchasing plan change. Rates presently stand at 0.5 percent.
• Attention shifts to North America at 7:30 a.m. with Challenger job cuts. Layoffs last declined 3.3 percent from January’s spike, but were 2.0 percent above year ago levels. There is no consensus estimate for the March report.  
• Initial unemployment claims are set for release at 8:30 a.m. Economists forecast an improvement from last week’s reading, with first time claims falling to 355,000 from 359,000. 
• Canada will release a reading of unemployment at the same time, with the Street predicting the jobless rate to remain at 7.4 percent in March.

There are no major earnings announcements scheduled for the day.

Consensus estimates provided by Bloomberg. All times are in Eastern Standard Time.

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See Also:

• Here Are The Key Market Moving Events For Wednesday, March 21, 2012
• Here Are The Key Market Moving Events For Tuesday, March 27, 2012
• Here Are The Key Market Moving Events For Wednesday, April 4, 2012

The Co-operative Bank has announced plans to increase its standard variable mortgage rate (SVR) by 0.5 percentage points to 4.74 per cent from 1 May.

The increase means that 54,000 mortgage borrowers will have to pay an average of £15 a month more on their mortgage.

The bank has increased its rates to help offset the higher costs of funding mortgages.

Changing conditions in the mortgage market also contributed to the decision, which will have the greatest effect on customers with a higher loan-to-value (LTV) on their mortgage.

The Co-operative Bank has therefore launched a new product to help customers with a higher LTV – a five-year fixed rate mortgage, available at the same rate they currently pay.

A spokesman for the Co-operative Bank said: “We are increasingly seeing a trend for savers to opt for longer term, fixed rate savings products, which typically pay higher rates of interest, and have a knock on effect in terms of the cost of then providing funding for our mortgages.”

Despite the Bank of England base rate remaining at just 0.5 per cent, several banks have already announced increases to their SVR:

Clydesdale and Yorkshire are increasing their SVRs from 4.59 per cent to 4.95 per cent on 1 May.

RBS-NatWest is increasing rates on its Offset Account and One Account by 0.25 per cent to 4 per cent.

Halifax is increasing its SVR from 3.5 per cent to 3.99 per cent, also from 1 May.

The Bank of Ireland is increasing the SVR on its mortgages to 4.49 per cent from 2.99 per cent in two stages by September 2012.

At the end of 2010, the Council of Mortgage Lenders estimated that around 1.8 million people had reached the end of their fixed-rate mortgage deal and moved on to their lenders’ SVR.

House prices have fallen for the first time in six months, with the decline attributed to changes in stamp duty.

The average house price in March was £163,327, 0.9 per cent lower than in March 2011.

It was the largest fall in house prices since June last year.

Nationwide’s figures showed a fall in nearly every region of the UK, compared with the previous quarter.

However house prices increased by 0.6 per cent in the north of England.

They also increased in Scotland, and Greater London.

Stamp duty changes also affected mortgage approvals, which dropped to 48,986 in February, the lowest level for three years, according to figures released by the Bank of England.

The figure was 9,000 lower than in January, when first-time buyers were rushing to buy a property before the end of the stamp duty holiday.

Temporary changes introduced in 2010 meant that properties worth between £125,000 and £250,000 were exempt from the 1 per cent stamp duty, but this was re-introduced on 24 March.

The number of mortgage approvals in January reached a 25-month high but analysts warned that a dip was likely when the stamp duty was re-introduced.

In contrast, the Building Societies Association (BSA) also released new figures today, showing that mortgage approvals by building societies and other mutual lenders increased in February 2012.

Compared with February 2011 they were 31 per cent higher and they also increased, by 29 per cent, compared with January 2012.

According to the BSA’s figures there were £2.2 billion-worth of mortgage approvals in February.

Adrian Coles, director-general of the BSA, said: “Gross lending and new mortgage approvals by mutuals continued to rise year on year in February, despite growth across the market as a whole remaining relatively flat.

“The strong financial results released by a number of mutual lenders in recent months show that the sector is well positioned to offer market leading products to its customers and are open for business.”