Showing posts with label ISM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ISM. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

ISM as Recession Indicator

ISM was reported at sub 50 for the 3rd month in a row.  Does that mean that a recession is imminent?

Below is a chart of ISM stripped down to only include times that the indicator has been below 50 for at least 3 months in a row.  There have been roughly 17 periods in which ISM has had a 3 month sub-50 streak.  Of those 17 times, 6 have been outside of a recession: 1951, 1967, 1985, 1995, 1998 and 2003.