On the heels of weakness in the rest of the world’s PMIs, US Manufacturing just printed 51.0 (missing expectations of 52.4) and tumbling to its lowest since October 2012… followed rapidly by Bernanke hinting at QE3. While Markit does ‘blame the extreme weather’, it notes however that “every indicator from the flash PMI survey, from output, order books and exports to employment, inventories and prices, is flashing a warning light about the health of the manufacturing economy.”

Not good…

Even worse…

Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit said:

“US factories are reporting the worst business conditions for over three years. Every indicator from the flash PMI survey, from output, order books and exports to employment, inventories and prices, is flashing a warning light about the health of the manufacturing economy.

“Output and order books are growing at one of their slowest rates since late-2012, with exports falling amid weakened global demand and the strong dollar.Hiring has weakened as a result. With backlogs of work slumping to the greatest extent since the height of the recession in 2009 and inventories rising for the third successive month, it’s likely that firms will come under increasing pressure to cut payroll numbers and production in coming months unless demand revives.

“Prices are meanwhile falling at the fastest rate since mid-2012 as firms compete to win or retain customers.

“The one caveat is that the survey was conducted in a month in which parts of the US suffered extreme weather. However, few survey respondents reported that the weather had a material impact on business over the month, instead often simply observing a general slowdown in trade and the economy.”

And with Services now tumbling also, what excuse will the permabulls have next…

Charts: Markit and Bloomberg