The ISM's November manufacturing report released Monday contracted for the fourth straight month.
Why it matters: It's an unexpected decline as most industry watchers expected the reading to rise. Surveys have shown manufacturing output declining for more than a year.
The ISM index sits at 48.1 for November. Anything under 50 on the reading indicates that manufacturing activity is declining.
Manufacturing has added just 2,000 net jobs in 2019, Barron's notes. That's due not only to a slowing pace of job growth from 2018's 264,000 manufacturing jobs added, but also to net job losses the past two months, including 36,000 net job losses in October.
Of note: China's manufacturing data has been steadily improving with a private and a government survey both showing the sector growing more than expected last month. This was after six straight months of the government's metric showing contraction.
The big picture: The most important piece of U.S. manufacturing data will likely not be the ISM's reading — it will be the Labor Department's November U.S. nonfarm payrolls report on Friday.
