US manufacturing growth slips in August as ISM PMI misses estimates

• Previous month registered 55.6
• The ISM manufacturing purchasing managers' index for August came in at 54.6, below the 55.2 consensus forecast.
• Employment component stood at 51.2, versus an estimate of 53.0. The prior month was 52.8
• New orders reached 53.7, down from 56.7 in July

A breakdown of the components compared with the previous month and the shifts

• Manufacturing PMI: August 54.6 versus July 55.6. A decline of 1.0 point month on month.
• New Orders: August 53.7 versus July 56.7. A decline of 3.0 points month on month.
• Production: August 58.3 versus July 58.5. A decline of 0.2 point month on month.
• Employment: August 51.2 versus July 52.8. A decline of 1.6 points month on month.
• Supplier Deliveries: August 59.3 versus July 58.9. An increase of 0.4 point month on month.
• Inventories: August 50.6 versus July 51.2. A decline of 0.6 point month on month.
• Customers’ Inventories: August 42.8 versus July 40.7. An increase of 2.1 points month on month.
• Prices: August 71.1 versus July 71.1. Unchanged month on month.
• Backlog of Orders: August 51.8 versus July 55.0. A decline of 3.2 points month on month.
• New Export Orders: August 53.2 versus July 53.0. An increase of 0.2 point month on month.
• Imports: August 52.5 versus July 55.7. A decline of 3.2 points month on month.

The components pointed to additional softness compared with the prior month

• Including the headline PMI, three measures rose, seven fell and one was unchanged.
• Looking solely at the 10 components, three increased, six declined and one was unchanged.

Overall, the August figures were weaker than July's, even though most readings remained above the 50 threshold. The manufacturing sector continued to expand, but the headline PMI dropped to 54.6 from 55.6. New orders, production, employment and order backlogs all lost momentum, and imports also slowed.

The gains were not uniformly positive. Higher supplier deliveries pointed to slower deliveries, and rising customers' inventories suggested inventories were less depleted. New export orders improved only marginally. Prices stayed elevated at 71.1, showing no relief in price pressures despite the slower pace of growth.