Indicators
US Manufacturing Downshifts as Orders Shrink, ISM Data Show
- ISM factory gauge decreases to 50.9, lowest since May 2020
- Index of new orders contracts for third time in four months
Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg
This article is for subscribers only.
A gauge of US manufacturing stumbled in September to a more than two-year low, moving closer to outright stagnation as orders contracted for the third time in four months.
The Institute for Supply Management’s gauge of factory activity dropped nearly 2 points to 50.9, the lowest since May 2020, according to data released Monday. A reading of 50 separates expansion and contraction, and the September result was weaker than the median projection of 52 in a Bloomberg survey of economists.