US Manufacturing Activity Beats Wall Street Estimates Despite Tariff Uncertainty

Investors have worried about a tariff-driven economic slowdown, but Main Street’s reaction has been mixed.

Workers assemble cars at the Ford plant in Chicago on June 24, 2019. Jim Young/AFP via Getty Images

U.S. manufacturing activity contracted for the second straight month in April, but the sector performed better than market forecasts.

The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI)—a monthly survey of the industry’s prevailing economic direction—fell to 48.7 last month from 49 in March.