Courtesy of Mish.
The word of the day is “stagnation”.
Both the ISM and Market manufacturing diffusion Indexes converged on the same number this month, 50.8.
Numbers above 50 represent growth, numbers below 50 contraction. 50 is stagnation.
Markit reports the US Manufacturing PMI is “close to stagnation in April”.
Key Points
- Manufacturing PMI points to weakest performance since September 2009
- Production volumes and payroll numbers rise only fractionally
- New business levels expand at slowest pace so far in 2016
Summary
April data indicated that U.S. manufacturers started the second quarter of 2016 with a renewed slowdown in production and new business growth. At the same time, employment levels were close to stagnation and input buying dropped at the fastest pace for two-and-a-half years, amid reports of slower than expected demand during the latest survey period.
Adjusted for seasonal influences, the final Markit U.S. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index™ (PMI™) registered 50.8 in April, down from 51.5 in March and only slightly above the 50.0 no-change threshold. The latest reading was weaker than the average seen in Q1 2016 (51.7) and signalled the slowest improvement in overall business conditions for just over six-and-a-half years.
Output volumes were close to stagnation in April, with the latest survey pointing to the weakest rise since the current period of expansion began in October 2009.The latest fall in unfinished business was the sharpest since September 2009. This contributed to a near-stalling of payroll numbers in April, with the rate of job creation the weakest for just under three years.
ISM Report on Business
The Report On Business® results table follows.
