The November S&P Global US Manufacturing PMI™ fell to 49.4 from 50.0 in October, signaling a renewed decline in operating conditions. The latest reading was consistent with expectations. The index has now fallen back into contraction territory after a brief 1-month expansion.
Here is an excerpt from Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, in the latest press release:
"US manufacturers reported yet another tough month in November. Output barely rose as inflows of new work showed a renewed decline, hinting at little – if any – contribution to fourth quarter GDP from the goods-producing sector.
“Orders have in fact risen in only three of the past 18 months, reflecting a prolonged period of subdued post-pandemic demand, in turn linked to consumers switching their spending to services such as travel and recreation, and business customers reducing excess inventories which had been accumulated during the supply concerns of the pandemic.
“Encouragingly, there are some signs of the inventory cycle starting to turn, with producers of intermediate goods (inputs supplied to other firms) now reporting modest order book growth.
“US producers nevertheless continue to focus on cost cutting by trimming headcounts, and have now taken the knife to payroll numbers for two consecutive months. Barring the early months of the pandemic, the survey has not seen such a back-to-back monthly fall in factory employment since 2009.
“The decline in employment could feed through to weaker consumer spending, but will also reduce wage bargaining power.
“Lower wage pressures, combined with a marked cooling of raw material input cost inflation, have already fed through to a lowering of average factory selling price inflation for goods to a rate below the average seen in the decade prior to the pandemic, the rate of increase dipping again in November to help further lower consumer price inflation in the months ahead.”
Background on the S&P Global US Manufacturing PMI
The S&P Global US Manufacturing PMI™ measures the activity level of purchasing mangers in the manufacturing sector through a questionnaire of ~800 manufacturers. The reported headline number is a weighted average of New Orders, Output, Employment, Suppliers' Delivery Time, and Stocks of Purchases. The S&P Manufacturing PMI is a diffusion index, meaning that a reading above 50 indicates expansion in the sector and a reading below 50 indicates contraction.
