While you were sleeping: US manufacturing disappoints

Friday 2nd October 2015

Equities on both sides of the Atlantic fell, following the previous day’s gains, as disappointing data on US manufacturing underpinned nervousness about the global economy and uncertainty about the timing of a US Federal Reserve interest rate hike.

An Institute for Supply Management report showed its index of national factory activity dropped to 50.2 in September, its lowest since May 2013.

Manufacturing is “clearly the weakest part of the economy,” Jim O’Sullivan, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, New York, told Bloomberg. It’s “highly exposed to foreign demand, and exports are declining.”

On the flip side, a separate report showed initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 277,000 for the week ended September 26.

"Filings at this level are incredibly low by historical standards, speaking to how tight labour markets are getting," Stephen Stanley, an economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities, told Reuters.

The data came a day before the government releases its monthly non-farm payrolls data, a key report watched by policy makers.

US employers probably added about 200,000 workers in September, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists, while the unemployment rate will probably hold at a seven-year low of 5.1 percent. The pace of wage gains will be closely watched.

In New York trading at about 2.20pm, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.6 percent, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index declined 0.4 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite Index retreated 0.7 percent.

Declines in shares of Intel and those of Nike, last down 2.1 percent and 1.8 percent respectively, led the Dow lower.

Equities have had a tough quarter, with the S&P 500 posting its worst performance in four years. That does not bode well for this month, according to Matt Maley, an equity strategist at Miller Tabak & Co in New York.

“The bottoms following those bad Septembers usually come in October,” Maley told Bloomberg. “People are going to sit on the sidelines a little bit longer until they get some more clarification. We’ve got the employment number tomorrow. After this big rally we had yesterday, I think people want to sit and see what happens.”

Russian air strikes against Syria, for a second day, contributed to the gloomy mood.

“There is still a sell bias and the unrest around Syria and Russia are also weighing," Andrew Frankel, co-president of brokerage firm Stuart Frankel & Co in New York, told Reuters.

Commodities including oil and gold also fell.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index ended the session with a 0.4 percent slide from the previous close. France’s CAC 40 Index fell 0.7 percent, while Germany’s DAX Index dropped 1.6 percent. The UK’s FTSE 100 Index rose 0.2 percent.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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