The nation's manufacturers continued to cut back production sharply in October for the second straight month, the Institute for Supply Management reported today. The ISM index fell to 38.9 percent in October from 43.5 percent in September, the lowest level since September 1982.
Meanwhile, the national Credit Manager's Index (CMI) fell 2.6 percent to a record low of 44.8 in October.
"The seasonally adjusted (CMI) for October revealed an increasing sense of doom among the participants, mirroring conditions in the rest of the economy," said Daniel North, chief economist for credit insurer Euler Hermes ACI, who analyzes the data and prepares the CMI report for the National Association of Credit Management (NACM).
Eight of the 10 components in the CMI set record lows, and nine are now below the 50 level, indicating economic contraction.
"The misery was spread all around, but manufacturing fared the worst, losing 4.2 percent, while services fell 0.9 percent," North said. "Certainly the economy is in dismal shape after the effects of high energy prices and the housing market bubble burst have been dragging on for some time. Now the increasing number of job losses, shrinking GDP, negative real retail sales and a host of other indicators confirm that the recession has arrived. Perhaps most troubling though is the disruption in the financial markets which has severely curtailed the availability of credit. As a result, which credit managers are so clearly telling us, not only is the economy bad, but the credit situation is making it even worse."
The NACM, headquartered in Columbia, Md., supports approximately 19,000 business credit and financial professionals worldwide with premier industry services, tools and information. The complete report may be viewed at http://web.nacm.org/cmi/cmi.asp.
The stock market mostly shrugged off the dismal manufacturing and credit numbers this morning, with advancers slightly outnumbering decliners. The largest local advancers in the BizTimes Stock Index this morning were Manpower Inc. (up 71 cents to $31.84) and Sensient Technologies Inc. (up 54 cents to $25.77). The largest local decliners this morning were Kohl's Corp. (down $1.08 to $34.05) and Harley-Davidson Inc. (down 89 cents to $23.59).

Circuit City Stores Inc. today officially joined the ranks of distressed national retailers, announcing the near immediate closure of 155 stores across the country, including a store in Brown Deer at 8173 W. Brown Deer Road.
The Richmond, Va.-based appliance and electronics chain cited the "continued weak macroeconomic environment" and said it will consider all available options to restructure its business.
Circuit City did not comment on the fates of the company's four other stores in Wisconsin.
The factors cited by the company for the closures included waning consumer confidence and a significantly weakened overall retail environment. The firm also said some of its vendors have taken "restrictive actions with respect to payment terms and the credit they make available to the company."
Vendors also have limited the credit available to the company for purchases, including in some cases not providing customary increases in credit lines for holiday purchases.
Circuit City plans to try to renegotiate some of its lease obligations.
James Marcum, vice chairman and acting president and chief executive officer of Circuit City Stores Inc., said, "Since late September, unprecedented events have occurred in the financial and consumer markets causing macroeconomic trends to worsen sharply. The weakened environment has resulted in a slowdown of consumer spending, further impacting our business as well as the business of our vendors. The combination of these trends has strained severely our working capital and liquidity, and so we are making a number of difficult, but necessary, decisions to address the company's financial situation as quickly as possible."
The company expects that stores to be closed will not open on Tuesday, Nov. 4, and the store closing sales will begin on Wednesday, Nov. 5. The company expects the sales to be completed no later than calendar year end.
Retailers that have filed for bankruptcy protection this year include Linens 'n Things Inc., Mervyn's LLC and Sharper Image Corp. Linens 'n Things has even asked a judge to expedite its filing so it can conduct its going-out-of-business sales before other retailers file for bankruptcy.

Fiserv Inc. a Brookfield-based provider of information technology services to the financial industry, today announced it has acquired The Data Center (TDC) based in Grapevine, Texas, from Compass Bank.
Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed.
TDC was a licensee and reseller of the Fiserv ITI Premier core banking system, which is available for either outsourced or in-house account processing, and offers products and associated consulting services for virtually every banking function. Fiserv is acquiring all of The Data Center's assets and contracts, and the center's 30 employees will become employees of Fiserv.
"This acquisition allows Fiserv to extend our core footprint and increase our ITI Outsourcing presence in the Texas marketplace through new expansion in the Dallas and Rio Grande Valley areas. We can offer these clients an experienced staff of professionals who are recognized as leaders in providing quality service," said Mike Young, president of Fiserv Bank and Thrift Division. "We began this relationship with The Data Center more than 20 years ago, and now Fiserv is pleased to have them join our team and begin directly serving these clients and other banks in the region. This direct partnership approach allows Fiserv to offer a personal relationship, along with the combined strength of the Fiserv product lines, that can help our clients achieve best-in-class results."

QPS Companies Inc. has acquired Personnel Resources Inc. and will take over the business of the company's locations in Beaver Dam and Richland Center.
Personal Resources Inc. was acquired from owner and president Susan Christian, who will no longer be active in the day-to-day operations, but will stay on as a consultant with QPS.
The associate employees of Personnel Resources Inc., currently working on assignment at local companies, will be retained and moved to QPS' payroll. The company's name will not be retained after six months, as the operations and internal staff will be folded into QPS' business.
With this acquisition, QPS will add an estimated 5.5 percent of business.
"We're excited about this acquisition, which allows us to expand our geographical reach and better serve both our customers and applicants," said Dan McNulty, executive vice president and chief operating officer of QPS.
QPS has grown significantly over the last two years, both organically and through acquisitions. In April of 2008, QPS acquired N.E.W. Contracting in the Fox Valley area. In 2007, QPS opened a branch in West Bend and an additional branch in Rockford, Ill., and in 2006, QPS acquired Employability and ShoreWorks and opened five new branches.

Oshkosh Corp. today reported fiscal fourth quarter net income of $53.6 million, or 72 cents per share, which was down from $85.4 million, or $1.14 per share, in the same period a year ago.
The company's quarterly net sales grew to $1.9 billion from $1.8 billion.
"We finished the year with a solid fourth quarter performance, driving strong cash flow and more than $200 million of debt reduction," said Robert Bohn, chairman and chief executive officer of the company. "Our growing defense business led the way in the quarter, which helped propel our full year revenue to more than $7 billion for the first time in our history. Looking ahead to fiscal 2009, debt reduction and cost management will remain priorities for us during this period of weaker global economies and uncertain credit markets. However, we intend to make limited strategic investments in global and new product development initiatives to continue moving our company forward."

National City Corp. today announced that chairman, president and chief executive officer Peter Raskind will leave the company upon the closing of the previously announced acquisition of National City by The PNC Financial Services Group Inc.
The transaction is expected to close by Dec. 31, 2008, subject to customary closing conditions, including both PNC and National City shareholder and regulatory approvals.
"It has been an honor and a privilege to lead the 30,000 men and women of National City," said Raskind, who was elected to his current role in July 2007. "As National City looks to the future with PNC, I am confident that our employees will continue to meet and exceed the needs of our customers as part of a financial services powerhouse."
Cleveland, Ohio-based National City entered the Milwaukee market last year, when it acquired MAF Bancorp Inc., the parent company of MidAmerica Bank that had acquired St. Francis Capital Corp., the former parent company of St. Francis Bank, in 2003.
Following its acquisition of National City, PNC will rank as the nation's fifth-largest bank.

A lawsuit filed by five Wisconsin school districts suing over investment advice they received two years ago is drawing national attention. The lawsuit was covered on page one, above the fold, by The New York Times on Sunday in a story about the global impact of the financial meltdown.

Caliendo Savio Enterprises (CSE), a New Berlin-based manufacturer and distributor of promotional products, corporate-branded clothing, awards and related products, is expanding its 90,000-square-foot facility by 24,000 square feet. Read more in the latest edition of the BizTimes Manufacturing Weekly bulletin.

Much like the proposed Kenosha casino, a proposed off-reservation casino that the Bad River and St. Croix Chippewa tribes want to build in Beloit is stalled in Washington, D.C., awaiting federal approval. A new presidential administration could improve the chances for the Beloit casino. Read more in SBT's daily roundup of headlines from newspapers across the state at www.biztimes.com/#news.

Voters in the City of Milwaukee will determine the fate of Tuesday's referendum calling for a mandate to require all employers in the city to provide a minimum amount of sick days per year for employees. Such a mandate would be disastrous for the city, according to Tom Rave, author of today's Milwaukee Biz Blog.