August 2020 ISM services report
- Prior was 58.1
- business activity 62.4 vs. 67.2 last month
- new orders 56.8 vs. 67.7 last month
- backlog of orders 56.6 vs. 55.9 last month
- employment fell to 47.9 from 42.1 last month
- new export orders 55.8 vs. 49.3 last month
- imports 50.8 vs. 46.3 last month
- supplier deliveries 60.5 vs. 55.2 last month
- inventory change 45.8 vs. 52.0 last month
- inventory sentiment 52.5 vs. 50.0 last month
The deceleration in new orders stands out but that's still a solid level of growth. The area to watch is in jobs, which were below 50 for the sixth consecutive month. It's not a great sign for Friday's non-farm payrolls report.
