Reflation Or Just Inflation?

Those looking for more evidence of price pressures got it (predictably) from ISM manufacturing on Monday. Although the headline gauge slipped alongside production and new orders, prices paid surged. At 58.7, the headline print for January was a miss. Consensus was looking for 60. The US has become a bifurcated economy in the post-pandemic world. Indeed, COVID-19 flipped America on its head. Manufacturing is resilient, while the services sector continues to labor (or, perhaps more aptly, not