U.S. Manufacturing Industry Continues To Struggle

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Visit MSCI’s website and click on industry data to learn more about our Metals Activity Report (MAR), Momentum Monitors,  and Economic Pulse.

Meanwhile, here are the major economic headlines from the last week:

• New orders for U.S. manufactured goods fell 0.2 percent in August while shipments dropped 0.5 percent. Unfilled orders rose 0.4 percent and the unfilled orders-to-shipments ratio was 6.87, up from 6.76 in July. Inventories increased 0.1 percent and the inventories-to-shipments ratio was 1.46, up from 1.45 in July. Read the full report at this link.
• Manufacturing readings for the U.S. sector remain unsteady last month. The Institute for Supply Management’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) was at 47.2 percent in September, the same reading as August. New orders stayed in contraction territory and the employment reading fell, but the production index rose five percentage points. The S&P Global PMI fell to 47.3 in September from 47.9 in August, marking the sharpest downturn since June 2023 and a third consecutive month of contraction. S&P Global Market Intelligence Chief Business Economist Chris Williamson said, “Factories reported the largest monthly drop in production for 15 months in response to a slump in new orders, in turn driving further reductions in employment and input buying as producers scaled back operating capacity.”
• S&P Global’s PMI for Canada rose, meanwhile, increasing to 50.4 in September from 49.5 in September. New orders and employment improved while production levels were only fractionally lower in September and output was up to a seven-month high. New export orders were down. Read the full report at this link.
• The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas said Texas manufacturing activity declined modestly in September. While the bank’s general activity index improved from -9.7 to -9.0, the production index indicated a slight drop in output. New orders, capacity utilization, and shipments also fell. Employment improved, however.
• U.S. construction spending fell 0.1 percent between July 2024 and August 2024, but increased 4.1 percent between August 2023 and August 2024. Read the full report at this link.
• U.S. employers added 254,000 jobs in September and the nation’s unemployment rate fell to 4.1 percent last month from 4.2 percent in August. Meanwhile, the number of job openings in the United States stood at eight million in August, a number that was very similar to the July level. In other employment news, the number of people who applied for U.S. unemployment benefits for the first time stood at 225,000 during the week that ended Sept. 28, a figure that was up by 6,000 from the week before. Averaged over the past four weeks, first-time claims rose slightly to 224,250. In all, nearly 1.826 million people claimed jobless benefits during the week that ended Sept. 21, a number that was down by 1,000 from the week before.