Disappointing U.S. News Including Latest Purchasing Manager Surveys
September 6, 2016
U.S. data released today reinforce the view of those analysts who do not expect the federal funds rate to be increased later in September. First, the Federal Reserve’s proprietary labor market conditions index fell 2.0 points, swinging from a reading of +1.3 to a 3-month low of -0.7 in August. Secondly, the IBD/TIPP index of investor optimism dropped 1.7 points to 46.7 in September.
Most damaging, the ISM non-manufacturing purchasing managers index, which is dominated by service-sector activities, fell 4.1 points to 51.4 in August, its lowest reading in over 4-1/2 years. Key components deteriorated even more sharply. Business activity/production dropped 7.5 points to 51.8, and new orders slumped 8.9 points to 51.4.
The eurozone services PMI, in contrast, edged only 0.1 point lower in August to 52.8, causing the spread in services between the U.S. and Euroland to swing adversely from +3.7 points in June to -1.4 by August. Over the same two-month interval the manufacturing U.S.-minus-Ezone manufacturing PMI differential fell from +0.4 points to -2.3 points, and so the sum of those two PMI spreads equaled -3.7 points in August, Euroland’s most advantageous position since January and 7.8 points more advantageous than in June.
To be sure, the case for a September rate hike is not zero or even totally remote. The unemployment rate has been below 5.0% in each the last four reported months and no higher than 5.0% since October 2015. The core personal consumption price deflator recorded on-year increases of 1.6% in May, June and July, and on-year growth in unit labor costs slightly surpassed 2.5% in three of the last four calendar quarters versus an average 2.0% increase in all of 2015. Fed officials are becoming more desperately anxious to create room to lower interest rates when the next recession hits and are increasingly resigned that a perfectly low-risk opportunity to tighten policy will never arise.
| PMIs | U.S. | Ezone | U.S. | Ezone | Sum of | ||
| Services | Services | Spread | Mf’g | Mf’g | Spread | Spreads | |
| Jan 2012 | 56.8 | 50.4 | +6.4 | 54.1 | 48.8 | +5.3 | +10.9 |
| Feb | 56.1 | 48.8 | +7.3 | 51.9 | 49.0 | +2.9 | +10.2 |
| March | 55.0 | 49.2 | +5.8 | 53.3 | 47.7 | +5.6 | +11.4 |
| April | 53.7 | 46.9 | +6.8 | 54.1 | 45.9 | +8.2 | +15.0 |
| May | 54.1 | 46.7 | +7.4 | 52.5 | 45.1 | +7.4 | +14.8 |
| June | 52.7 | 47.1 | +5.6 | 50.2 | 45.1 | +5.1 | +10.7 |
| July | 52.9 | 47.9 | +5.0 | 50.5 | 44.0 | +6.5 | +11.5 |
| August | 54.3 | 47.2 | +7.1 | 50.7 | 45.1 | +5.6 | +12.7 |
| Sept | 55.2 | 46.1 | +9.1 | 51.6 | 46.1 | +5.5 | +14.6 |
| October | 54.8 | 46.0 | +8.8 | 51.7 | 45.4 | +6.3 | +15.1 |
| November | 54.8 | 46.7 | +8.1 | 49.9 | 46.2 | +3.7 | +11.8 |
| December | 55.7 | 47.8 | +7.9 | 50.2 | 46.1 | +4.1 | +12.0 |
| Jan 2013 | 55.2 | 48.6 | +6.6 | 53.1 | 47.9 | +5.2 | +11.8 |
| February | 54.8 | 47.9 | +8.1 | 53.1 | 47.9 | +5.2 | +13.3 |
| March | 54.5 | 46.4 | +8.1 | 51.5 | 46.8 | +4.7 | +12.8 |
| April | 53.8 | 47.0 | +6.8 | 50.0 | 46.7 | +3.3 | +10.1 |
| May | 54.0 | 47.2 | +6.8 | 50.0 | 48.3 | +1.7 | +8.5 |
| June | 53.4 | 48.3 | +5.1 | 52.5 | 48.8 | +3.7 | +8.8 |
| July | 55.9 | 49.8 | +6.1 | 54.9 | 50.3 | +4.6 | +10.7 |
| August | 57.9 | 50.7 | +7.2 | 56.3 | 51.4 | +4.9 | +12.1 |
| Sept | 54.5 | 52.2 | +2.3 | 56.0 | 51.1 | +4.9 | +7.2 |
| October | 55.1 | 51.6 | +3.5 | 56.6 | 51.3 | +5.3 | +8.8 |
| November | 54.1 | 51.2 | +2.9 | 57.0 | 51.6 | +5.4 | +8.3 |
| December | 53.0 | 51.0 | +2.0 | 56.5 | 52.7 | +3.8 | +5.8 |
| Jan 2014 | 54.0 | 51.6 | +2.4 | 51.3 | 54.0 | -2.7 | -0.3 |
| February | 52.5 | 52.6 | -0.1 | 54.3 | 53.2 | +1.1 | +1.0 |
| March | 53.7 | 52.1 | +1.6 | 54.4 | 53.0 | +1.4 | +3.0 |
| April | 55.3 | 53.1 | +2.2 | 55.3 | 53.4 | +1.9 | +4.1 |
| May | 56.1 | 53.2 | +2.9 | 55.6 | 52.2 | +3.4 | +6.3 |
| June | 56.3 | 52.8 | +3.5 | 55.7 | 51.8 | +3.9 | +7.4 |
| July | 57.9 | 54.2 | +3.7 | 56.4 | 51.8 | +4.6 | +8.3 |
| August | 58.6 | 53.1 | +5.5 | 58.1 | 50.7 | +7.4 | +12.9 |
| Sept | 58.1 | 52.4 | +5.7 | 56.1 | 50.3 | +5.8 | +11.5 |
| October | 56.9 | 52.1 | +4.8 | 57.9 | 50.6 | +7.3 | +12.1 |
| November | 58.8 | 51.1 | +7.7 | 57.6 | 50.1 | +7.5 | +15.2 |
| December | 56.5 | 51.6 | +4.9 | 55.1 | 50.6 | +4.5 | +9.4 |
| Jan 2015 | 56.7 | 52.7 | +4.0 | 53.5 | 51.0 | +2.5 | +6.5 |
| February | 57.1 | 53.7 | +4.4 | 52.3 | 51.0 | +1.3 | +5.7 |
| March | 56.9 | 54.2 | +2.7 | 52.3 | 52.2 | +0.1 | +2.8 |
| April | 57.5 | 54.1 | +3.4 | 51.6 | 52.0 | -0.4 | +3.0 |
| May | 55.9 | 53.8 | +2.1 | 53.1 | 52.2 | +0.9 | +3.0 |
| June | 56.2 | 54.4 | +1.8 | 53.1 | 53.1 | 0.0 | +1.8 |
| July | 59.6 | 54.0 | +5.6 | 51.9 | 52.4 | -0.5 | +5.1 |
| August
Sept October |
58.3
56.7 58.3 |
54.4
53.7 54.1 |
+3.9
+3.0 +4.2 |
51.0
50.0 49.4 |
52.3
52.0 52.3 |
-1.3
-2.0 -2.9 |
+2.6
+1.0 +1.3 |
| November
December Jan 2016 February March April May June July August |
56.6
55.8 53.5 53.4 54.5 55.7 52.9 56.5 55.5 51.4 |
54.2
54.2 53.6 53.3 53.1 53.1 53.3 52.8 52.9 52.8 |
+1.7
+1.6 -0.1 +0.1 +1.4 +2.6 -0.4 +3.7 +2.6 -1.4 |
48.4
48.0 48.2 49.5 51.8 50.8 51.3 53.2 52.6 49.4 |
52.8
53.2 52.3 51.2 51.6 51.7 51.5 52.8 52.0 51.7 |
-4.4
-5.2 -4.1 -1.7 +0.2 -0.9 -0.2 +0.4 +0.6 -2.3 |
-2.7
-3.6 -4.2 -1.6 +1.6 +1.7 -0.6 +4.1 +3.2 -3.7 |
Copyright 2016, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permission.
Tags: Service sector PMIs
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