A Bowl of Mixed Nuts

Today's batch of economic indicators was mixed, showing that the manufacturing economy remains weak, while the labor market remains strong. In addition, inflationary pressures continue to ebb in the goods sector. Yesterday, the Atlanta Fed's GDPNow tracking model's latest estimate was that real GDP rose 3.9% (saar) during Q4, up from 3.2% during Q3. Here's more:

(1) The M-PMI report showed that the overall manufacturing index fell from 49.0 in November to 48.4 in December led by a 3ppts drop in production to 48.5 and a 2ppts drop in orders to 45.2 (chart). This isn't surprising since consumers have been spending more on services than on goods since early 2022.