ISM Non-Manufacturing NMI Analysis

Well there isn't much positive in this report.  The ISM Non-Manufacturing index is a measures the level of a diffusion index based on surveying purchasing managers, excluding the manufacturing industry.  This like the ISM Manufacturing PMI Index is subjective and queries for the following five main categories: Business Activity, New orders, Employment, Supplier Deliveries and Investment.  There are other categories that are queried and I summarize later.  The report provided on August 2010 for the prior month showed a negative direction in all categories.  As shown in the graph below all five of the categories declined.

Another disturbing trend which is consistent with my previous ISM Manufacturing PMI analysis showed that prices for materials higher (woe, aren't we in a deflationary period?) and new export orders and the backlog declined.  Another similarity is that imports for materials was higher than exports.  This does not help GDP.  With these declining fundamentals, you really have to ask yourself what is going on here.