US manufacturing remains in a recession/Job openings lift but...

The September ISM manufacturing index remained in contraction at 47.2, unchanged with August and .3 pts below the estimate. New orders and backlogs remained well below 50 and inventories fell by 6.4 pts to 43.9 after jumping by 5.8 pts in August. Customer inventories were exactly at 50 vs 48.4 in August. Export orders fell by 3.3 pts to 45.3 and is below 50 for a 4^th straight month. The employment component was down by 2.1 pts to 43.9, well below 50 and the 2^nd lowest read since the summer of 2020. Supplier deliveries were above 50 for a 3^rd month (implying slowing delivery times), ahead of the port strikes. The prices paid index though did dip below 50 at 48.3, down from 54 in August. That’s the lowest since December.

With respect to industry breadth, only 5 industries saw growth, the same number seen in August while 13 were in contraction vs 12 in the month before.

Bottom line, US manufacturing, along with most of the rest of the world outside of India and a few others, remains in a recession.

Here were some comments on specific components: