September’s ISM Manufacturing Index “Screams Recession,” Economists Say

By Patrick McGee, Mortgage News Daily

Economists say the details of the ISM manufacturing report in September were just as bad as the headline would suggest, as all major components contributed to pull the index down to its lowest level since October 2001.

Strategists at RDQ Economics said the release “screams that the economy is in recession,” confirming what the weekly jobless claims survey has been reporting for several weeks now.

The U.S. manufacturing sector plummeted below market expectations in September, as a 6.4-point drop in the headline was the sharpest monthly decline since 1984.

Chief U.S. economist Ian Shepherdson from HFE said the “dramatic decline” was “unheralded” by regional reports and pushes the index into recession territory. “[H]urricanes over the past month account for at least some of the decline in the index, but surely not all of it,” he added. Read more….