U.S. stock futures stable; earnings season kicks into top gear
Investing.com - U.S. manufacturing activity contracted in June, albeit at a slower-than-anticipated pace, as businesses in the sector eye the potential impact of sweeping U.S. tariffs.
The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index for the month came in at 49.0, rising slightly from 48.5 in May and above expectations for 48.8, data from the Institute for Supply Management showed on Tuesday. A figure below 50 denotes contraction.
A tracker of new orders sank for the fifth month in a row, dipping to a reading of 46.4. In May, the number stood at 47.6. However, gauges of inventories and production improved, which the ISM said accounted for much of the 0.5 percentage point gain in the overall figure.
"The Inventories Index remains in contraction territory (though at a slower rate compared to May) after expanding in April, as companies completed pull-forward activity ahead of tariffs. The Supplier Deliveries Index indicated slower deliveries but improved performance, indicating that the delays in clearing goods through ports of entry are largely complete," said Susan Spence, Chair of the ISM’s Manufacturing Business Survey Committee.
Spence added that elevated U.S. tariffs induced an acceleration in price growth, while a tracker of imports stayed in contraction territory but regained some ground.
Writing in a note, analysts at Vital Knowledge said: "[T]he manufacturing ISM is relatively neutral in that it doesn’t jolt the narrative in one way or the other (although the implications remain stagflationary with muted growth and hot prices)."