ZCZC
BCN-03
US-ECONOMY-INDICATOR-MANUFACTURING
US manufacturing contracts in September to lowest since 2009: ISM
WASHINGTON, Oct 2, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The recession in US manufacturing
worsened last month as plunging global demand and trade frictions drove
activity to its lowest point since the Great Recession, according to an
industry survey released Tuesday.
The unexpected drop in the Institute for Supply Management’s closely-
watched index was another worrying sign for the US economy, amid President
Donald Trump’s trade war with China, slowing consumer spending and weaker
sales of major factory-made goods.
The bad news knocked the wind out of Wall Street’s sails, with the Dow
Jones Industrial Average closing down 1.3 percent.
Trump blamed the Federal Reserve, rather than his own trade wars, accusing
the central bank and Fed Chair Jerome Powell of hurting factory output by
allowing the US dollar to strengthen, by failing to cut interest rates
aggressively, which puts American exports at a disadvantage.
“As I predicted, Jay Powell and the Federal Reserve have allowed the
Dollar to get so strong, especially relative to ALL other currencies, that
our manufacturers are being negatively affected,” Trump said on Twitter in
yet another attack on the independent institution.
“They are their own worst enemies, they don’t have a clue. Pathetic!”
ISM’s manufacturing index fell 1.3 points to 47.8 percent in September,
the lowest point since June 2009 and showing continued contraction. Any
reading above 50 indicates growth.
Economists had expected the index to recover to above 50 percent. Instead,
manufacturing recorded its sixth straight monthly decline and its second
month in contraction.
– ‘Warning signs are clear’ –
Timothy Fiore, chair of ISM’s manufacturing survey, told reporters the
index was unlikely to see a meaningful recovery so long as demand remained
low.
“Clearly without new orders picking up, the number’s going to stay down,”
he said. “I think we’re sitting in a position here where we’re at a level
that will probably continue.”
MORE/HR/0928
ZCZC
BCN-04
US-ECONOMY-INDICATOR-MANUFACTURING 2 LAST WASHINGTON
There was little sign among survey respondents that a three-week
nationwide strike by auto workers or recent gyrations in oil prices had
caused difficulties, he added, although that could change if the strike at
General Motors persists.
Many of the comments from survey participants point to Trump’s trade war
with China, noting that the retaliatory tariffs are hurting business and
undermining confidence, despite comments from administration officials
claiming Americans have not been impacted by the dispute.
A major concern was the computers and electronics sector, Fiore said.
“That has been one of the primary engines of growth for the last three
years and it’s now in a contraction mode,” he said.
Total new orders for manufactured goods were at their lowest since 2012.
Export orders, which feed into overall orders, fell to 41 percent, their
worst month since March of 2009.
Manufacturing represents around a tenth of overall US GDP, meaning the
sector can contract without dragging the wider economy into a recession, as
it has in the past.
But trouble for factories is often an early warning, economists say.
Of 18 industries surveyed, three experienced growth — miscellaneous
goods, food and chemical products — and even they reported growth was weak
to flat.
In the miscellaneous category, a respondent said growth “has slowed
dramatically,” while in fabricated metals, a sector enjoying robust trade
protection from the Trump administration, a company said the market was
“slowing even more than… normal” for the fourth quarter.
Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics said the ISM report was “pretty
awful.”
“This survey is a not consistent with recession across the whole economy,”
he said in an analysis.
“But the warning signs here are clear enough. The trade war is wreaking
havoc, to the point where the incipient upturn in manufacturing in China is
not transmitting, at all, to the US.”
BSS/AFP/HR/0930