The ISM Manufacturing Index is expected to tick higher to 53.0 in tomorrow’s update for August vs. the previous month, based on The Capital Spectator’s average point forecast for several econometric estimates. The prediction is moderately above the neutral 50.0 mark and so the current outlook still translates into a forecast of growth for this benchmark of economic activity in the US manufacturing sector.
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Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer over the weekend laid out the rationale for raising US interest rates in the near future, perhaps as early as next month. His reasoning boils down to two main arguments. One, “the economy has continued to recover and the labor market is approaching our maximum employment objective.” Meanwhile, inflation is still low—“persistently below” the Fed’s 2% target, he recognized in a speech on Saturday. But that won’t last, he explained, advising that “there is good reason to believe that inflation will move higher as the forces holding down inflation dissipate further.”
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● US personal income & spending rise in July
● US consumer sentiment slips to 3-month low in August
● A Fed rate hike in September? Maybe, says Fed Vice Chairman Fischer
● Eurozone flash estimate of annual inflation in Aug: stable but close to flat at 0.2%
● German retail sales accelerate, rising 1.4% in August
● Italy retail spending falls for second month in August
● Japan industrial output slides 0.6% in July