Chicago purchasers reported Friday that the pace of business activity in June rose substantially, as the index posted a yearly high of 44.4 versus 38.7 in May, suggesting that the "worst may be over" for the Chicago-area manufacturing sector. Five of the eight indexes posted marginally to substantially higher levels in June versus May, including production, which rose to 46.7 from 41.5; new orders, up 6.7 points, or 45.6 versus 38.9 last month; order backlog up a tremendous 10.7 points, or 40.5 versus 29.7 in May; employment rose modestly to 35.6 from 33.4; and, supplier deliveries, which stayed relatively unchanged, falling very modestly to 44.1 from 45.0 in May.