Manufacturing activity in the United States, as measured by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), declined in November for the first time in two and a half years. ISM’s November Manufacturing PMI came in at 49 percent, which is 1.2 percentage points lower than the 50.2 percent registered in October, according to a recent ISM…

Retail sales unexpectedly rose 0.3 percent in August, topping the market estimate of 0 percent growth, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s advance estimates (pdf). This is up from the downward revised 0.4 percent drop in July, which was the first decline in seven months. In total, consumers spent $683.3 billion, up 9.1 percent from…

New orders for U.S.-manufactured goods in November increased by about 1.6 percent to $532 billion, maintaining the streak which has been positive for the last 18 out of 19 months, although there was a decline in mining and oil field machinery, along with turbines, generators and other power transmission equipment. The latest numbers followed an…