Despite a modest uptick in October, the JPM Global Manufacturing PMI just recorded its fourth straight reading below 50. With its 12-month moving average teetering on that dividing line between expansion and contraction, it seems clear that the risk is to the downside as far as the global economy is concerned. In fairness, the index has only been around for 12 years, which is not enough of a history to establish a definitive causal relationship. But given the value that PMI indicators for individual countries have had with respect to predicting economic upturns and downturns, and it doesn't seem a stretch to interpret the recent negative readings in a similar light.
