It’d be too strong to say investors were “on tenterhooks” ahead of Thursday’s update on the marquee gauge of US factory activity.

Notwithstanding the sort of melodramatic cadence that typifies modern macro-market color (present company included), no one shushed their Starbucks date to parse the PMI data. (“Yo, Taylor, I’ma let you finish, but ISM’s out.”)

Thursday’s release did carry more weight than it would’ve anyway as a top-tier US macro readout, though. Allow me to briefly recapitulate.

Hot preliminary readings on S&P Global’s PMIs for the US economy, released last week, were blamed for reigniting the bond selloff at a time when yields scarcely needed another excuse to keep rising. If ISM “concurred” with the S&P Global surveys, the US long-end could trade heavier still, assuming that’s possible with yields already the highest since Saddam Hussein was running Iraq.

That was the setup for ISM manufacturing which printed — drumroll — 54.5 on the headline for September. That was actually lower versus August and below consensus, which expected 55.

The S&P Global manufacturing headline was revised lower to 55.9 from the 57 print which spooked bonds last month.

Both the ISM headline and the downward revision to the S&P Global print felt anticlimactic, as did robust, but not earth-shattering readouts on the ISM production and new orders gauges, which came in at 56.7 and 55.3, respectively. The latter was up from August, the former down.

But — BUT — the prices gauge soared nearly 7ppt to 77.9. Economists expected 73.

That’s not what you want, and it speaks (loudly and obviously) to the deleterious impact of sundry wars, both the trade kind and the shooting sort.

Most ISM comments were negative for September. As survey director Susan Spence noted, “pricing volatility was mentioned in 46% [of negative comments], tariffs 34% [and] the Iran war 30%.”

The panelist anecdotes suggested the tariffs are causing more consternation than the war. Someone in Transportation Equipment was especially direct. “Every month, we are faced with new headwinds created by this administration,” the respondent said. “The only thing that is predictable is the chaos that is created by these trade policies.”

Yikes! That’s not very patriotic. Somebody check that guy’s (or gal’s) mortgage docs.