Here’s a round-up of some of the recent manufacturing surveys in the USA. On the whole they’ve been much weaker than expected:
Dallas Fed Business Activity Index: -3.4, down from 10.8 last month.
Kansas City Manufacturing Index: 3, down from 9 last month.
Richmond Fed Index: 14, up from 7 last month.
Empire State Index: 6.56, down from 20.21 last month.
Philly Fed Survey: 8.5, down from 12.5 last month.
Chicago PMI: 56.2, down from 62.2 last month.
Interestingly, the consensus is calling for a flat ISM report despite broad weakness in recent regional reports. Last month’s ISM report came in at 53.4 and the consensus is calling for 53 tomorrow. If the regional surveys are telling us anything it’s likely that there’s downside risk in tomorrow’s report. And if so, we’ll likely get more chatter about QE3 in June….
Mr. Roche is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Discipline Funds.Discipline Funds is a low fee financial advisory firm with a focus on helping people be more disciplined with their finances.
He is also the author of Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Understand About Money and Finance, Understanding the Modern Monetary System and Understanding Modern Portfolio Construction.
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