Global Manufacturing Stalls and Contracts

www.marketwatch.com...

Here's the US manufacturing, barely growing at all.

The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing gauge in July dropped 4.4 points to 50.9%, the worst reading since July 2009 and barely staying above the 50% no-change line.

Since April, the ISM index has slumped 9.5 points, the worst three-month dip since the September-to-November 2008 period when Lehman Brothers collapsed.

It also looks like there hasnt been new orders to produce much either.

The new orders index fell into contractionary territory for the first time since June 2009, and indexes for prices and employment in particular saw big drops. The prices index has dropped a stunning 26.5 points over the past three months. The employment gauge fell 6.4 points to 53.5%.

The article says it is "too early" to tell if this is another step to another recession, but either way, it still isnt good news.

Suprisingly, the US manufacturing growth is doing better than some other major countries.

One of the worst came from Brazil, where the HSBC Brazil manufacturing PMI fell in July to 47.8, the second consecutive month below the 50 no-change line and the worst reading since May 2009. China, Russia, the U.K., Spain and Greece also reported sub-50 readings.

Another article about the manufacturing decline
www.marketwatch.com...

Markets have been so preoccupied with the austerity theater playing out in Washington and Athens that they almost lost sight of the big picture: the global economy.

It dosent look like the markets are liking this ISM data too much at the moment either.Maybe global manufacturing will pick up soon after the debt-ceiling thing is over?

I've just finished Atlas Shrugged.

Maybe John Galt has collected all of the "great minds".

Rand was amazing in her vision of the future.

She may have been a bit fruity in her personal life but she was a genius regardless.

It's kind of hard to spend money on goods with $4 a gallon gas. I'm sure pumping endless $50 bills into your gas tank is hurting everyones pocket.

That's interesting. I have friends and family that work at a Goodyear tire plant and a Caterpillar parts production plant here in Kansas and both say that they are working hard and can pretty much do as much overtime as they want, which many are taking advantage of to the limit of their abilities. I'll have to ask one of my ex's who works at a Kawasaki plant in another state to see how much work they are putting her through. Last I'd heard she was scheduled to work solid for another year and a half.

That aside, this news is very bad. For many years the remnants of the manufacturing sector in the US was dependent on exports for growth as much of the domestic market had already been saturated and needed a small fraction of production. I wonder though if these nations that are experiencing domestic manufacturing downfalls are having the demand met in their country's by US plants, since it may be easier to purchase our equipment with the weakened dollar.

reply to post by buni11687


Easiest method to observing international manufacturing and trade/production ..........

www.bloomberg.com...:IND

Baltic Dry Index.

In the past few months it's come down significantly.

If you observe 5+ year charts you will see since the collapse the "recovery" has stalled months ago, and is still declining. It's also interesting to note that current levels are SIGNIFICANTLY lower than they were prior to the depression. So we have to ask "what recovery" .. if anything you might say stagflation.

High: Approx 13000 (2008)
Low: Approx 700 (2008)

That signified the scope of the economic destruction.

We are currently at 1200 .. In the past 12 months we have gone from 3000 level to 1200. This signifies that "stimulus" has stopped fueling the economy, production has decreased resulting in international trade declining.

Inflation has been incredibly high for the past few years, meaning less production can still mean higher profits, this essentially means the economy is still stagnet and or collapsing yet the profit records and GDP growth is showing economic growth even when there is none.......

reply to post by buni11687


The more you look at it, the more there seem to be similarities to the Great Depression. It seems history does repeat itself.

rawfinanceblog.com... parable-to-1937/

I just hope we don't follow the same path the world did back then, when worldwide depression tipped the world over the edge of insanity, and into the bloody mouth of Hell itself.

The worlds militaries are arming themselves, the pressure on governments mounting. Flashpoints abound, East West North and South. Seeing how current leadership is, um, lacking, I don't see how we can avoid the worst depression. And worse, war.

Peace

reply to post by Rockpuck


Excellent point, thanks for bringing this up. Have heard it mentioned on NPR, but never hear it mentioned on msm.

The downward curve in the BDI is ominous. Welcome to the 21st Century Depression, your future has arrived.

Seems like the only thing missing is WWII again. When will we ever learn.