Featured Image

Fed’s Soft Landing May Ignite Manufacturing Technology Market Growth

Nov 07, 2024

McLean, Va. (November 7, 2024) — In a widely anticipated move, the Federal Reserve slashed the federal funds rate by another 25 basis points to a target range of 4.5% to 4.75%. In announcing the decision, the FOMC statement stated “that the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals are roughly in balance.” However, Fed Chair Jerome Powell cautioned that there may be bumps along the road.

“The strength in the industrial sectors we saw in the GDP report last week was echoed by Chair Powell in the press conference,” said Christopher Chidzik, principal economist of AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology. “When we look at orders for manufacturing technology, they seem to have hit bottom in July 2024 and have been trending upward ever since. This is a leading indicator that the growth seen in the economy is on a sustainable path if the Fed can maintain the balance of risks with the rate cut announced today.

“The recently released economic data and the path of the Fed indicates that the economy has found itself at the onset of an economic soft landing. During the last soft landing, which began in April 1995, orders of manufacturing technology initially fell along with interest rates, only to rebound to record levels by the beginning of 1998. Should our current episode prove to be the same, the manufacturing technology industry may find itself at the beginning of another strong market.”

A more expansive review of the behavior of manufacturing technology orders in the last soft landing will be explored in the next edition of AMT’s MT Magazine, due out the first week of December 2024.

READ THE FULL RELEASE.

PicturePicture
Author
Kristin Bartschi
Director, Marketing & Communications
Recent intelligence News
Today at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, the Federal Reserve gave the strongest indication to date that an interest rate cut is in the cards for September. Will manufacturers, who face a tight labor market, increase technology investments?
Oxford Economics now projects 2.9% growth in 2025 machine tool orders. See what’s driving the shift and get the full forecast at AMT’s MTForecast on Oct. 15-17 in Schaumburg.
With a robust history of data spanning nearly three decades, AMT’s statistical programs offer the most frequent, accurate, and applicable information on the manufacturing technology market.
The Federal Reserve held the federal funds rate steady at a target range of 4.25% to 4.5% for the fifth meeting in a row. For the first time since December 1993, two members of the committee dissented.
Today, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released their advanced estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) for the second quarter of 2025. Real GDP increased by 3.0% on an annualized basis, driven by a sharp reduction in imports.
Similar News
undefined
Intelligence
By Kristin Bartschi | Aug 22, 2025

Today at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, the Federal Reserve gave the strongest indication to date that an interest rate cut is in the cards for September. Will manufacturers, who face a tight labor market, increase technology investments?

5 min
undefined
Intelligence
By Christopher Chidzik | Aug 20, 2025

Shipments of cutting tools, measured by the Cutting Tool Market Report, totaled $204.1 million in June 2025, declining 1.8% from May 2025 and 3.9% from June 2024. Year-to-date shipments totaled $1.23 billion, a drop of 4.9% from the same period in 2024.

4 min
undefined
Intelligence
By Christopher Chidzik | Jul 21, 2025

Shipments of cutting tools, measured by the Cutting Tool Market Report, totaled $207.8 million in May 2025. Orders dropped 2.3% from April 2025 and 5% from May 2024. Year-to-date shipments totaled $1.03 billion, a drop of 5.1% from the same period in 2024.

4 min