US manufacturing shrinks in Sept on weaker global demand

Washington

AMERICAN manufacturing stagnated in September as a stronger dollar and faltering overseas markets led to the slowest pace of orders since November 2012.

The Institute for Supply Management's factory index decreased to 50.2, the third straight decline and the weakest since May 2013, from 51.1 the prior month, the Tempe, Arizona-based group's report showed on Thursday. Fifty is the dividing line between expansion and contraction. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg was 50.6.