US manufacturing expanded at a slower rate than expected in April, facing headwinds from oil’s collapse and feeble global demand.
The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index dropped one point to 50.8—hovering just above the stagnation level at 50, while the median economist prediction to Bloomberg was 51.4.
“We’re dealing with the lagged impact of what previous dollar appreciation has done, and added to that we have a domestic inventory overhang, and that’s just going to keep manufacturing kind of on the sidelines,” Brett Ryan, economist at Deutsche Bank, tells Bloomberg.
Industrial real estate is going strong despite the weak manufacturing numbers, boosted by the rise of e-commerce. Jack Rosenberg, Colliers’ national director logistics and transportation, told Bisnow in March that industrial is seeing some of the hottest conditions in the past 35 years.
“Industrial real estate is a little bit like a sleeper story,” Jack says. “But in this sector we’ve been singing ‘happy days are here again’ since 2011.” [Bloomberg]
