After some contradictory data in the past few weeks, we have confirmation that US manufacturing growth slowed in September. From Reuters:
The Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index fell to 52.9 in September, its lowest since May 2005. That was down from 54.5 in August and modestly beneath a median Wall Street forecast of 53.5. A reading above 50 indicates an expansion.
But elsewhere in the US economy, the slowdown does not appear to be too drastic.
At the very least, a recent drop-off in home sales appeared to be abating, with an index of pending home sales rising 4.3 percent in August -- the first increase since May.
Construction spending also grew unexpectedly in August, but that was only because commercial and public projects offset more declines in home-building. Spending rose 0.3 percent, confounding estimates for a 0.3 percent decline.
There was also little evidence of a manufacturing slowdown elsewhere in the world. The JPMorgan Global Manufacturing PMI edged down just 0.1 point to 54.9 in September. The PMI for the euro zone was unchanged from the upwardly-revised August reading of 56.6, while in the UK, it rose to 54.4 from a downwardly revised 53.0 in August.
David Hensley, director of Global Economics Coordination at JPMorgan, commented on the global manufacturing survey as follows:
The latest PMI report showed an improvement in the flow of new orders and, at the same time, a slower pace of inventory accumulation. These developments, if sustained, would remove some of the downside risk to production growth in coming months. The survey also recorded a notable reduction in input cost pressures.
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