Tale Of Two Surveys Of Purchasing Managers

Today's NM-PMI for February was happier than the month's M-PMI released on Wednesday. On balance, they confirm that consumers have pivoted away from buying goods to services, and that the rolling recession in the goods-providing industries continues to be offset by strength in services-providing ones.

Let's start with the happy news that's contributed to this morning's stock market rally:

(1) NM-PMI. The overall index remained solidly above 50.0 at 55.1 (chart). The same can be said for production (56.3) and employment (54.0). New orders jumped to 62.6. Supply chain disruptions are no longer a problem as the supply deliveries index fell to 47.6, among the lowest readings of this series.