Economists continue to claim that manufacturing just doesn’t matter and that the service economy is more than fine. Setting aside the obvious link between services and goods to begin with (since so many services are dedicated to managing, moving and especially selling goods), it just doesn’t add up; if consumers are freely spending on services then why would they so [...]
On September 28, Mark Haefele, Global CIO at UBS Wealth Management, wrote at CNBC.com there was much more to the central banking offerings than currently employed. The implication, obviously, was a reassuring call to not heed any darkening outlook. Blaming that upon “overanalyzed data”, Mr. Haefele insisted that investors were becoming far too pessimistic given the potential monetarism yet untapped. [...]
You get the same sense from factory orders that you get from payrolls – the economy is obviously and significantly slowing but there isn’t yet any crispness or urgency to any of it. I think that is the business environment reacting to both revenue reality (falling off) without being ready to commit to more serious negative adjustments just yet. In [...]
Factory orders gained slightly month-over-month on a seasonally-adjusted basis but collapsed in year-over-year unadjusted terms. The latter was due, only in part, to base effects of the huge surge in July last year for Boeing. Even factoring that somewhat ill-suited comparison, factory activity is still way down and, as other indications, only undergoing a slight pause in the downward trend. [...]
With factory orders continuing to be much worse than they appear, it makes sense to try to measure the effect of over-optimism accounted by inventory. Recessions themselves were once almost exclusively set up by this one factor, as the difference between production and sales, caught up within the supply chain, eventually works out toward alignment. Companies are willing to hold [...]
For the most part, the descriptions of factory orders released this morning tend toward the seasonally-adjusted monthly variation. That is unsurprising given how much continued focus there is in just the narrowest of timeframes, leaving that as the basis for enlarging extrapolations. For June, factory orders were up 1.84% after dropping a revised 1.09% in May. That sounds hopeful and [...]
The ISM Manufacturing PMI for June was up to 53.5 which was the best monthly showing this year. That has been taken as inarguable insistence that the US factory sector is doing what economists expect, even though 53.5 is significantly below both June 2014 and the 12-month average (which includes four months beginning February below 53) of 54.7. As usual, [...]
While the payroll report commands almost all attention, the view from factory orders is simply much more significant. Even if we accept that payroll growth is steady at something greater than 200k per month, that is still at least two steps removed from actual economic activity as is intended from that same orthodox framework. Jobs are supposed to lead to [...]
I understand the idea behind trying to get exports to fit into the orthodox conventions about the dollar and global trade, even if I don’t agree with that at all, as it at least makes some plausible sense. If the dollar is up against trade partners, in simple math terms you might expect to see fewer US exports heading overseas [...]
If there is some small gain to be had from current economic circumstances, it might be a lesson in what the dollar is and what it is not. Just a few months ago the idea of the “strong dollar” was almost ubiquitous, scarcely any shaky economic commentary could be found without mentioning that as the trump to the upside. It [...]
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