US Manufacturing Malaise Continues, But Disinflation Is Silver Lining

The marquee gauge of US manufacturing activity spent a seventh month in contraction territory, data released on Thursday showed. That was the bad news. The good news centered around an anomalous undershoot for the underlying measure of input price trends. At 46.9, ISM manufacturing was essentially in line with estimates. The range of guesses from more than five-dozen blissfully hapless astrologers was 45.5 to 48.5. Not too bad, actually, for a group of people who inexplicably condemned themsel