“The U.S. manufacturing sector shrank again, but the uptick in the PMI® indicates a marginally slower rate of contraction,” according to the July PMI report from the Institute of Supply Management (ISM), despite a slight increase to 46.4 (a reading under 50.0 is consistent with contraction). “In the last eight months,” the report went on to say, “the Supplier Deliveries Index has recorded its eight lowest readings since March 2009 (43.2 percent)” during the Great Recession, surpassing the more recent sharp but short Covid downturn. Read the full report here.