US Business Activity Hits 4-Year High as India's IPO Market Logs Its Busiest Month Since 2006

America's Services Boom Masks a Manufacturing Split

S&P Global's Composite Purchasing Managers' Index climbed to 56 in August from 54.5 in July, the strongest reading since April 2022, according to the firm's August 21 release. Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, called it straightforward: "US business is booming."

But the composite number hides a split. Services activity hit its strongest pace since December 2024, driven by softer price pressures, higher staffing, and rising order backlogs, per S&P Global. Manufacturing, measured the same survey way, posted its weakest growth since March. Williamson tied that to "reduced safety stock building and supply delays," and the report pointed to higher energy-driven input costs and a five-month-old war in Iran weighing on factories, alongside global tariffs.

Breitbart's Business Digest painted a different picture the same week, under the headline "The Trump Manufacturing Boom Gets Even Stronger." Breitbart's numbers come from harder data, not sentiment surveys: the Census Bureau reported new factory orders rose 0.9% in July to $663.6 billion, beating forecasts of 0.5%. Orders are up 6.5% year-to-date, and durable-goods orders specifically are up 7.6%. Primary metals orders are up 14.4% for the year, machinery 12.3%, computers and electronics 14.3%.

Federal Reserve industrial production data back that up on the volume side, not just price. Business equipment output rose 0.8% in July, its sixth straight monthly gain, and is up 6.6% from a year earlier after growing at a 12.7% annualized rate in the second quarter. That's a reversal from 2023 and 2024, when business equipment output fell 1% and 6.8% respectively.

Manufacturing job openings reached 580,000 in July, up 35% from a year ago, with durable-goods openings alone up 68% to 429,000, Breitbart reported, citing federal data. Durable manufacturers have added 72,000 jobs since December.

The survey-based PMI shows manufacturing sentiment cooling under tariff and geopolitical pressure, while the hard order and output data show durable-goods production actually accelerating. Breitbart's framing credits the boom to Trump-era policy directly in its headline. The underlying data doesn't settle that causal question one way or the other, since the same period shows tariffs and the Iran war cited by S&P Global as headwinds on the very same manufacturing sector.

Regionally, the Philadelphia Fed's Manufacturing Index hit its highest level since April 2021, and the New York Fed's Empire State Index posted its fastest growth since late 2021, according to Epoch Times. The Atlanta Fed's GDPNow model currently projects 4% annualized growth for the third quarter, up from roughly 3% implied by the PMI data alone.

India's IPO Market Ignores a Falling Stock Index

India's primary market ran in the opposite direction from its own benchmark indices in August. The Nifty 50 fell 1.2% and the Sensex declined 1.5% for the month, snapping a two-month winning streak, according to Rediff, citing renewed geopolitical tensions, higher crude prices, and concerns over U.S. interest rates.

IPOs continued regardless. Prime Database, cited by Business Standard, recorded 21 mainboard IPOs in August raising roughly ₹20,944 crore, the busiest month by deal count in 2026. Combined with July's ₹28,648 crore across 12 deals, July and August together accounted for ₹49,592 crore, nearly 69% of the ₹72,165 crore raised across all of 2026 through August.

Ten of the 23 IPOs launched in August drew bids exceeding 100 times the shares on offer, the highest monthly tally of such heavily oversubscribed deals since 2006, according to Fortune India, citing exchange data. Hy-Tech Engineers topped the list at 244.41 times subscribed, followed by Tempsens Instruments India at 183.53 times and ESDS Software Solutions at 135.88 times. Ardee Industries, Lumino Industries, Augmont Enterprises, Behari Lal Engineering, Sunshine Pictures, Shiprocket, and Priority Jewels also crossed the 100-times mark.

Priority Jewels closed its subscription window on September 1 at 100.45 times overall, with bids for more than 32 crore shares against 32 lakh shares on offer, according to Upstox. Allotment was scheduled for September 2, with shares set to list September 4.

Pranav Haldea, managing director of Prime Database, told Business Standard the rush reflects both a strong debut from SBI Funds Management earlier in the year boosting confidence and a backlog of companies whose SEBI approvals were set to expire. Tempsens Instruments more than doubled on its August 28 debut, the year's biggest listing-day gain, per Rediff.

Rediff also flagged a genuine wrinkle to watch: India's exchanges introduced a new closing auction session mechanism on August 3, and it produced visible volatility, including a sharp swing in the Sensex's indicative value during the August 27 derivatives expiry before recovering into the close. Foreign portfolio investors, meanwhile, stayed net buyers, deploying roughly ₹20,000 crore in August.

Whether India's IPO frenzy holds once large offerings like Jio Platforms and the National Stock Exchange itself come to market, both cited by Rediff as pending, will be the next test of whether this is durable demand or a short-term scramble for oversubscribed paper.