Please consider the final J.P.Morgan Global Manufacturing PMI™ for 2022.

Key Findings 

• Output falls across US, China, euro area and Japan
• Job losses registered for second successive month
• International trade volumes fall

The J.P.Morgan Global Manufacturing PMI™ – a composite index produced by J.P.Morgan and S&P Global in association with ISM and IFPSM – fell to a 30-month low of 48.6 in December and remained below the neutral mark of 50.0 for the fourth straight month. Excluding the lows registered during the early months of the global pandemic, the current PMI reading is the lowest since the first half of 2009.  

Manufacturing PMI by Country

Only seven out of the 29 nations for which December data were available had a PMI reading in expansion territory – India, Russia, Mexico, Colombia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia. 

The US, the UK and Brazil were the largest nations ranking towards the lower reaches of the PMI league table. 

The report noted bright spot of business optimism that rose to a four-month high. Also the cyclically sensitive new orders-to-finished goods inventories ratio edged higher.

I suggest rising optimism is more likely to be a contrarian indicator. There's no reason to believe consumers are about to go on a sustained spending surge.

That said, there is a A Mad Rush to Build More EV Factories in the US. But where are the minerals?

More By This Author: