Any time you have three economic reports hitting at once, you have a risk for confusion or for diverging data. That is the case today as the Institute for Supply Management gave the June ISM Manufacturing data, while we saw pending home sales data and new construction spending data mixed for May.
The Institute of Supply Management released its ISM Manufacturing Index for June, and that came in at 44.8. We had estimates from Bloomberg of 45.0, and this is up slightly from the 42.8 reading in May. As long as this is under 50, there is continued contraction.
Construction Spending for May came in at -0.9%. We had a consensus estimate at -0.5% from Bloomberg but listed as -1.0% at Dow Jones. With this being a May number, this lags some of the more current data. April was revised to +0.6% from +0.8% originally reported.
On that front, the report of Pending Home Sales rose by 0.1% to 90.7 from an upwardly revised reading of 90.6 in April, and is 6.7% higher than May 2008 when it was 85.0. This is a rise of four consecutive months with what the association believes is affordability and incentives such as tax credits.
Jon C. Ogg
July 1, 2009
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