There continues to be mixed news on the US economy, with strong employment and consumer spending data juxtaposed against weak manufacturing and freight numbers.

Each month, we track the Purchasing Managers Index from the Institue for Supply Management, which is actually a combination of 5 other measures. A PMI score above 50 indicates manufacturing expansion, while below 50 signals contraction.

But ISM actually tracks a number of economic measures for manufacturers, as shown in the November results below:

As can be seen, virtually evey metric has a score below 50, indicating contraction. The PMI itself has shown contraction for four straight months.  Not good.

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