US ISM manufacturing index for May 48.5 versus 49.5 estimate

• Priot month 48.7

Details:

• 🔻 Prices Paid: 69.4 vs. 69.8 last month

• 🔺 Employment: 46.8 vs. 46.5 last month

• 🔺 New Orders: 47.6 vs. 47.2 last month

• 🔺 Production: 45.4 vs. 44.0 last month

• 🔺 Supplier Deliveries: 56.1 vs. 55.2 last month

• 🔻 Inventories: 46.7 vs. 50.8 last month

• 🔻 Customer Inventories: 44.5 vs. 46.2 last month

• 🔺 Backlog of Orders: 47.1 vs. 43.7 last month

• 🔻 New Export Orders: 40.1 vs. 43.1 last month

• 🔻 Imports: 39.9 vs. 47.1 last month

The report was issued today by Susan Spence, MBA, Chair of the Institute for Supply Management^® (ISM^®) Manufacturing Business Survey Committee:

“The Manufacturing PMI^® registered 48.5 percent in May, 0.2 percentage point lower compared to the 48.7 percent recorded in April. The overall economy continued in expansion for the 61st month after one month of contraction in April 2020. (A Manufacturing PMI^® above 42.3 percent, over a period of time, generally indicates an expansion of the overall economy.) The New Orders Index contracted for the fourth month in a row following a three-month period of expansion; the figure of 47.6 percent is 0.4 percentage point higher than the 47.2 percent recorded in April. The May reading of the Production Index (45.4 percent) is 1.4 percentage points higher than April’s figure of 44 percent. The index continued in contraction in March for the third straight month after two months of expansion preceded by eight months of contraction. The Prices Index remained in expansion (or ‘increasing’) territory, registering 69.4 percent, down 0.4 percentage point compared to the reading of 69.8 percent in April. The Backlog of Orders Index registered 47.1 percent, up 3.4 percentage points compared to the 43.7 percent recorded in April. The Employment Index registered 46.8 percent, up 0.3 percentage point from April’s figure of 46.5 percent.

“The Supplier Deliveries Index indicated a continued slowing of deliveries, registering 56.1 percent, 0.9 percentage point higher than the 55.2 percent recorded in April. (Supplier Deliveries is the only ISM^® Report On Business^® index that is inversed; a reading of above 50 percent indicates slower deliveries, which is typical as the economy improves and customer demand increases.) The Inventories Index registered 46.7 percent, down 4.1 percentage points compared to April’s reading of 50.8 percent.

“The New Export Orders Index reading of 40.1 percent is 3 percentage points lower than the reading of 43.1 percent registered in April. The Imports Index plunged into extreme contraction in May, registering 39.9 percent, 7.2 percentage points lower than April’s reading of 47.1 percent.”