The American manufacturing sector continues contracting. The trade war is warming up once more. That is not a decent recipe for investor certainty: The US stock market was in the red on Monday.

The Institute for Supply Management revealed activity at America’s factories contracted for a fourth-straight month in November. The buying managers’ index was just 48.1, compared with the economists’ consensus forecast of 49.2. Any reading under 50 denotes a contraction.

So much for the final quarter stabilization that numerous economists had anticipated.

“A bounce was expected after the end of the GM strike and amid some easing in U.S./China trade tensions,” said Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO. The worse-than-expected data also followed some improving manufacturing data from China and Europe, which suggested the sector might be stabilizing globally.

“Global trade remains the most significant cross-industry issue,” said Timothy Fiore, chair of the Institute for Supply Management’s Manufacturing Business Survey Committee.

Overview respondents referred to progressing economic uncertainty and confusion over the trade relationship with China. Some said the present conditions led them to amend their capital-spending plans.

Making matters worse, October construction spending likewise sharply underperformed expectations forecasts, falling 0.8% when a 0.4% bump was expected.

Escalating trade-spooked producers’ feelings of dread, on Monday, President Donald Trump renewed the danger of import taxes on steel and aluminum from Brazil and Argentina, referring to a “massive devaluation of their currencies.”

The facts demonstrate that both the Brazilian real as well as the Argentine peso have fallen in value against the US dollar this year. Be that as it may, regardless of whether it was an instance of deliberate debasement to increase advantage in commerce is another inquiry. The real is down some 8% and the peso has plummeted over 37%, not least due to its tempestuous political and economic situation.

This burdened US stocks Monday, which had their most noticeably terrible one-day percentage drops in weeks. The Dow (INDU) shut down 268 points, or almost 1%, while the more extensive S&P 500 (SPX) fell 0.9%. The Nasdaq Composite (COMP) fell 1.1%. Each of the three indexes logged their most exceedingly awful one-day percentage drops since early October.