The surprisingly sharp drop in yesterday’s release of the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index for August has unleashed new worries that the US economy is weakening as it heads into the final months of 2016. It doesn’t help that the Federal Reserve’s broadly defined Labor Market Conditions Index (LMCI) dipped back into negative territory last month. Neither of these soft numbers present a smoking gun for arguing that the US is slipping into a new recession, but the news raises more doubts about the wisdom of raising interest rates at the Fed’s monetary policy meeting that’s scheduled for Sep. 20-21.
Continue reading →