ISM Manufacturing data rises in July. USD declines in Forex Trading.

By CountingPips.com

U.S. Manufacturing data, released today by the Institute for Supply Management, showed that manufacturing activity contracted in July for the eightteenth straight month but did see better than expected improvement. July’s ISM Report On Business index readings for economic activity registered a 48.9 percent score following June’s 44.8 percent level and just slightly below a growing level. A score above 50 percent is considered to be economic growth and less than 50 percent is considered to be a contraction. The July score was better than economic forecasts which were expecting the ISM index reading to register 46.5 percent for the month.

Norbert J. Ore, chair of the ISM Business Survey Committee, commented on the report saying, “The decline in manufacturing was slower in July when compared to June, as the more leading components of the PMI — the New Orders and Production Indexes — rose significantly above 50 percent, thus setting an expectation for future growth in the sector. The Employment and Inventories Indexes are still contracting, but the rate is slowing and they are moving in the right direction. It is also worth noting that the New Export Orders Index shows growth following nine consecutive months of decline, suggesting that the global economy is recovering. Overall, it would be difficult to convince many manufacturers that we are on the brink of recovery, but the data suggests that we will see growth in the third quarter if the trends continue.”

Almost all of the manufacturing sectors tracked for July showed improvement over the June report with customer inventories being the exception. Customer inventories decreased by 1.0 percent in July.

New orders, production, employment, supplier deliveries, inventories, prices, exports, imports and the backlog of orders all showed increased readings for July. The exports index registered a 1.0 percent increase for July while imports  increased by 4.0 percent.

US Dollar falls lower in forex trading.

The U.S. dollar has been under pressure in forex trading against the major currencies so far in Monday trading. The dollar has fallen against the euro, Australian dollar, British pound, Swiss franc, New Zealand dollar and Canadian dollar while trading higher against the Japanese yen.

The euro has advanced versus the dollar as the EUR/USD has gone from today’s 1.4234 opening exchange rate at 00:00 GMT to trading at approximately 1.4418 in the afternoon of the US trading session at 12:22pm EST according to currency data by Oanda.

The British pound has increased today versus the American currency from 1.6723 to trading at 1.6957 dollars per pound. The dollar has decreased against the Canadian dollar after the USD/CAD’s opening at 1.0781 earlier today to trading at 1.0664 later.

The Australian dollar has also traded higher versus the USD as the AUD/USD trades at 0.8416 after opening today at 0.8372 while the New Zealand dollar has gained versus the USD and the NZD/USD trades at 0.6676 after opening at 0.6624.

The dollar has gained against the Japanese yen today as the USD/JPY has advanced from its 94.75 opening to trading at 95.26.

Meanwhile, the USD has fallen against the Swiss franc today as the USD/CHF has declined from the 1.0719 opening to trading at 1.0587.

GBP/USD Chart – The British Pound Sterling advancing today against the US Dollar in Forex Trading and trading at its highest exchange rate since October 2008.

GBP/USD Forex Chart
GBP/USD Forex Chart