Construction Spending
September’s improvement in overall construction spending was revised from a 0.5% monthly gain to a 0.3% decline, but making matters worse was a 0.8% decline in October. Still, construction spending is up 1.1% over the past year. The weakness is coming from private non-residential spending, which is down 4.3% over the past year, due mostly to a lack of corporate spending.
PMI and ISM Manufacturing Indices
IHS Markit’s manufacturing index ((PMI)) posted a third consecutive monthly increase from 51.3 in October to 52.6 in November, which is now a seven-month high. This survey