This is the kind of data that will pressure the Fed to drop rates as they don't want to be perceived as micro-managing the bailout of a financial sector hopped up on greed and river boat gambling. But this? This is real economy stuff. We'll have more conclusions about that in this weekend's NFTRH.
Oh, and as an aside, welcome new subscribers and thank you for putting your trust in me! I will probably have a bit of a settling in period but I am going to put the pedal down on this thing as I get it in gear.
| MANUFACTURING AT A GLANCE SEPTEMBER 2008 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Index | Series Index September | Series Index August | Percentage Point Change | Direction | Rate of Change | Trend* (Months) |
| PMI | 43.5 | 49.9 | -6.4 | Contracting | Faster | 2 |
| New Orders | 38.8 | 48.3 | -9.5 | Contracting | Faster | 10 |
| Production | 40.8 | 52.1 | -11.3 | Contracting | From Growing | 1 |
| Employment | 41.8 | 49.7 | -7.9 | Contracting | Faster | 2 |
| Supplier Deliveries | 52.5 | 50.3 | +2.2 | Slowing | Faster | 15 |
| Inventories | 43.4 | 49.3 | -5.9 | Contracting | Faster | 3 |
| Customers' Inventories | 53.5 | 54.5 | -1.0 | Too High | Slower | 2 |
| Prices | 53.5 | 77.0 | -23.5 | Increasing | Slower | 21 |
| Backlog of Orders | 35.0 | 43.5 | -8.5 | Contracting | Faster | 5 |
| Exports | 52.0 | 57.0 | -5.0 | Growing | Slower | 70 |
| Imports | 44.0 | 48.5 | -4.5 | Contracting | Faster | 8 |
| OVERALL ECONOMY | Growing | Slower | 83 | |||
| Manufacturing Sector | Contracting | Faster | ||||
