August 22, 2019
By Alex Tanzi
U.S. factory activity contracted in August (click here) for the first time since September 2009 as new orders shrank, consistent with an ongoing global manufacturing slump.
The IHS Markit manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index slipped to 49.9 from a final July reading of 50.4, according to a preliminary August report Thursday that trailed all estimates in Bloomberg’s survey of economists. Factory employment stagnated on the heels of weaker orders and subdued output.
A reading of 50 is the threshold between expansion and contraction, and the August figure adds to growing evidence that the American industrial sector is losing momentum amid tepid global economies and uncertainty about trade policy. Both domestic demand and orders from abroad shrank this month by the most in a decade...
