NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - U.S. manufacturing activity slowed in September, the nation's purchasing managers said Wednesday, missing Wall Street forecasts.
The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its index of manufacturing activity fell to 53.7 from 54.7 in August. Any number above 50 indicates expansion in the sector. Economists, on average, expected the ISM index to rise to 55, according to Briefing.com.
"The manufacturing sector continued to improve for the third consecutive month, as new orders and production show evidence of a stronger economy in September," said Norbert Ore, chairman of the ISM's survey committee. "Both of these indices have grown over the past five months, which is very encouraging considering the challenges that the economy has faced in the last two years."
U.S. stock prices rose after the report, while Treasury bond prices fell. Traders may have been expecting the ISM number to be much worse, given the surprising weakness of manufacturing in the Chicago region, according to a report from Chicago purchasing managers Tuesday.
ISM's new orders index rose to 60.4 from 59.6 in August. The production index, however, fell to 57.3 from 61.6 in August.
The employment index fell to 45.7 from 45.9 in August, indicating manufacturers were cutting jobs at a faster pace.
Manufacturing workers have suffered the most during a long job slump in the broader U.S. economy; 2.3 million of the 2.8 million jobs lost since March 2001 have come from manufacturing. Some economists believe many of those jobs are gone for good.
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