PODCASTS
In our second episode today, Megan Horneman looks into the ISM Manufacturing Index released today, February 1st. Megan highlights the trend of the manufacturing sector remaining in contraction for the past 15 months, staying below 50 on the index. However, she brings positive news as the index has increased to its highest level since October 2022. Megan also emphasizes a significant uptick in new orders, the most substantial since June 2020, signaling economic improvement. She addresses the Fed's potential focus on the surge in prices paid, the largest increase since December 2020, posing inflationary concerns. Tune in tomorrow as we discuss the implications of the jobs report on the Fed and equity markets. For any questions or comments, reach out to us at podcast at Verdence dot com.
Watch today's episode here:
Hello this is Megan Horneman the Chief Investment Officer for Verdence Capital Advisors it's February 1st and we're coming to you with our regular segment of markets with Megan um we're going to talk about the ISM Manufacturing Index that comes out in the first date of every month um this index measures the manufacturing sector it's been in what we consider contraction territory now for 15 consecutive months that's a level below 50 on that index but the good news around this report is even though manufacturing has been contracting for well more than a year um it did increase to its highest level since October of 2022 so let's jump into some of the information within this report uh there was a pretty big uptick in new orders it was the biggest jump since June of 2020 um that's a good sign from the from an economic standpoint um but when you look at what the FED may be put uh paying attention to is the big jump the biggest increase we saw was in prices paid this is an inflationary concern this is something the FED will pay attention to um what we saw was that had its biggest jump since December of 2020 now the majority of all these other um components of this index whether it's the backlog of orders employment new export orders inventories all these things are still in contraction territory the employment one continues to be weak and that's something that we're going to be watching um in the upcoming jobs report as well uh that's we have from the manufacturing side um we'll be back tomorrow with some of the information regarding the jobs report and what that means for the fed and the equity markets going forward if you have any questions or comments please feel free to reach out to podcast at Verdence dot com. thank you
