A single economic indicator failed to measure up to expectations yesterday and, as predicted, it's fodder for doomsayers:
A surprisingly weak reading on the manufacturing sector sent stocks mostly lower Tuesday as investors feared that the economy has indeed run into a soft patch.
The Dow spent the entire day in the red despite an equally "surprising" rise in reported consumer confidence — blue chips fell sharply in the afternoon but if the manufacturing report had been positive and confidence down, we might have read the same conclusion drawn from a different antecedent. Average quarterly growth and keen optimism, weightier than a report on a market sector that has been blazing for the better part of two years, are left out. Why settle on a bevy of good news when there's that one spot of bad?
THE DOW ALSO RISES: A second manufacturing report, just two percent shy of estimates, is enough for Wall Street. Perhaps the excitement has something to do with two years of expansion, whatever the rate fluctuations.