Markit Manufacturing PMI Stable With Slight Acceleration

In what has been a contrast to the ISM manufacturing report, Markit's manufacturing PMI is showing stability and slight but still tangible acceleration. October's flash of 51.5 is up 1/2 point from September and more than a full point from August in a result that may or may not, however, affect expectations for next week's ISM which has been falling sharply to a multi-year low of 47.8 in September.

Markit's services sample continues to report about the same conditions and limited rate of plus-50 growth as the manufacturing sample, coming in at 51.0 and little changed from the prior two months. This score together with manufacturing make for a composite score of 51.2 for October which is a little above Econoday's consensus for 50.9.

New orders are a big plus this month for Markit's manufacturing report in contrast to services which sank. Backlog orders for both samples are in contraction while employment, in line with backlogs, fell at the steepest rate in 10 years. Price pressures are modestly positive as are business expectations which have improved to a four-month high.