The Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) month to month Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) stayed below the 
50% contraction level in December, sliding 0.4 percentage points to 48.2%. It was the second month in a row of withdrawal for the PMI, and the seventh continuous month of decay for the benchmark production index. It’s likewise the least recording for the PMI since a 45.9% recorded in June 2009.
The fall in December was not surprising. There were reports of a continued decline in the Chinese manufacturing market, which prompted a Jan. 4 selloff in securities exchanges in China and the United States. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 350 points at the open of the first trade session of 2016. Maybe all the more upsetting to the assembling area is a few issues referred to by ISM’s Business Survey Committee hint at no reprieve.
A weakening in oil prices has different impacts on different sectors. A committee member in the petroleum and coal products industry said, “Low oil prices are negatively impacting oil and gas exploration activities. Low oil prices are generally positive for the petrochemical industry.”
Index stayed in contraction, slides for seventh straight month over global concerns. CFE Media file photo. Since hitting 53.5% in June 2015, the PMI has been on a long, slow decline, finally falling below the 50% threshold for manufacturing expansion in November for the first time in three years.
