US: Markit Manufacturing PMI drops to 51.7 in January vs. 52.5 expected

• Activity in US manufacturing sector slowed down in January. 
• Service sector activity continues to expand at a strong pace.

The economic activity in the US' manufacturing sector expanded at a slower pace in January than it did in December, the preliminary data published by the Markit Economics showed on Friday.

The Manufacturing PMI dropped to 51.7 from 52.4 in December and fell short of the market expectation of 52.5. 

Other data revealed that the Services PMI improved to 53.2 from 52.8 and the Composite PMI rose to 53.1 from 52.7, both readings coming in slightly better than market estimates.

Commenting on the data, "the recovery of growth momentum across the US private sector continued to quicken at the start of 2020, with overall output rising at the sharpest pace since last March,"  Siân Jones, Economist at IHS Markit said. "Nonetheless, the underlying data highlights a manufacturing sector that is not out of the woods yet, with goods producers seeing only modest gains in output and new orders." 

USD reaction

The US Dollar Index largely ignored the data and was last up 0.15% on a daily basis at 97.83.