Despite exuberance at European and Chinese PMIs, the US clean shirt just skidded with a miss. Against expectatins of a high YTD 54.0 print, PMI posted 52.8 - its lowest in 3 months and falling for the second month in a row. New orders fell at the slowest pace since April (boding ill for durable goods) and the employment sub-index grew at the slowest pace in 3 months (suggesting payrolls will not hold up well). Of course, as Markit notes, bad news is good news "as far as policymakers are concerned there are some worrying signals in relation to the sector’s growth momentum, which vindicate the Fed’s decision to hold off on tapering its asset purchases."
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From Markit:
Employment growth also slowed, reflecting manufacturers’ concerns about the strength of future demand and the on-going need to boost productivity to remain competitive at home and abroad. The sector is consequently not helping to bring unemployment down