For some traders, life’s a glitch.
The Institute for Supply Management, which botched Monday’s report on manufacturing before correcting it twice, blamed the error on a software malfunction.
It originally reported weaker-than-expected numbers before it was caught by a research firm, sending stock markets down before rebounding by the end of the day.
“There wasn’t a check in place or this particular element of the report calculations because this is the first time this has happened in recent memory,” said Kristina Cahill, an analyst for the ISM.
The ISM used proprietary software to calculate its monthly manufacturing gauge, but will manually check its reports from now on, she said.
The ISM’s monthly reports on business and manufacturing are used as an economic weather vain by investors.