Is the U.S. Manufacturing Recovery Slowing Down? 

A recent Wall Street Journal MarketWatch posting warned that the U.S. economy might be in trouble when factory orders dropped in both March and April.

According to a Commerce Department report, factory orders slipped 0.6 percent in April and orders in March suffered a 2.0 percent decline.  This was the first consecutive decrease in factory orders in more than three years.

However, the MarketWatch article went on to say that a report from the Institute for Supply Management, “suggests U.S. factories are still expanding at a solid pace.  Some economists say the ISM data are better at forecasting trends in the manufacturing sector.”

ISM’s May 2012 Manufacturing ISM Report on Business says that economic activity in May expanded for the 34^th consecutive month, and the overall economy grew for the 36^th consecutive month.

So take your pick: a little gloom and doom from the Commerce Department or a modest ray of sunshine from ISM.  And take heart – as Heraclitus said a long, long time ago, “Nothing is permanent except change.”