National Activity contracted for the 3rd month in a row according to The Chicago Fed's index. Printing -0.04 (missing expectations of +0.05 for the 9th time of the last 11 months), CFNAI has now been below 0 (contraction) for 8 months this year. Under the surface the biggest problem is the collapse in the sales-to-inventories index to cycle lows (contracting 7 of the last 8 months).
The heradline index is seen contracting for the 3rd month in a row...
[2]
as sales collapse relative to inventories...
[3]
Charts: Bloomberg
