The chart on the left shows the ISM clearly has broken through the up trend from its recession recovery and now is in a well-established downtrend. Its recent up-tick is still in the grip of that down-trending range.

The table below shows the ISM and its components with a number of statistics that describe it/them. A quick perusal of the table shows why I like to evaluate the ISM by looking at the values in the LAST TWO columns instead of seeing if the index is above 50 (Rising) or below it (Falling).

Each of these ISM components has a different range variability characteristic, range of values and mean.

Even with the ISM above 50, as it is this month, it is still only in the 46^th percentile of its range and at 96% of mean.

Only inventories, prices and the trade-related components are above their mean values. Employment, at 99% of its mean, is nearly there.

So while the ISM indicates expansion in the lexicon of the ISM we can see it is indeed a still wounded report that shows manufacturing is not yet up to par.