Europe's Credit Crunch Good For U.S. Manufacturing? Possibly

The European debt crisis may have left global investors nervous but the post credit-crunch era may actually be giving the more bustling U.S. manufacturing sector an advantage compared to its global competitors more dependent on the continent's consumers.

Booming domestic business for large American manufacturers shielded their first quarter profits from foreign credit shocks. Because of the industry's robustness at home compared to its European competitors, U.S. factories seem to be making the best out of the continent's fiscal sluggishness.

Increased output is helping prevent the gross domestic product from falling back down to recessionary levels, unlike in Europe.

Observed Bank of America/Merrill Lynch strategists in a research report, according to CNBC.com: "The net effect is a growth cycle that is likely to favor U.S. sectors such as manufacturing ... "The US manufacturing sector may benefit from the wage constraint, cheap resources and inexpensive working capital that the post-credit crunch world provides."

In other words, the U.S. economy, as illustrated by manufacturing, seems to be "continually decoupling from Europe," noted BPU Investment Management Executive Vice President Nadav Baum to CNBC.com.

"We're starting to retool, we're getting back to the basics and the U.S. is starting to do more manufacturing," he added. "That's going to be a continuing theme."

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