Open thread for night owls: Manufacturing numbers take a plunge and look grim for the near future

At Reuters, Ryan McCarthy writes:

It's a holiday week, which means that you should be doing relatively little. Unfortunately, the world economy seems to be doing exactly the same.

In the US, today's data from the [Institute for Supply Management] showed 'contraction in the manufacturing sector for the first time since July 2009.' [...] There were two particularly troubling data points. No one seemed very interested in buying things 'new orders fell at the fastest pace in a decade; and people paid less for those things'prices paid fell at the fastest rate since just after 9/11. This is, as one analyst put it to the [Wall Street Journal], a bad omen: 'It is only a matter of time before the service sector mirrors the real goods slowdown and overall employment gains move from sluggish to worse.'

In its own manufacturing index released today, Markit Economics suggested the US manufacturing industry is slowing, but not quite in contraction. But like the ISM report, Markit's data also showed that new orders fell. And the company's own economist acknowledged that "the ISM suggests something drastic happened in June."

Not just in America. Seventeen of the world's largest 24 economies show manufacturing PMIs'purchasing managers index'in contraction.

All this adds more shadow to the monthly jobs report coming out Friday. If it's a weak one, and so far almost all data points in that direction, it will be the fourth such report in a row.

High Impact Posts. Top Comments. Overnight News Digest.