The headline index came in at 52.1, slightly above the flash estimate of 52.0 published earlier this month, but down from March's 54.6 reading.
Any reading above 50 on the index signals expansion, so the 52.1 reading in today's release suggests that American manufacturing is still expanding, but at a markedly slower pace than in March.
The new orders sub-component of the index fell to 51.5 from March's 55.4 reading. The output sub-component fell to 53.7 from 56.6, and the employment sub-component fell to 53.2 from 54.6.
Below is a complete breakdown of the sub-components from the release:
Click here for the full release >
Earlier this morning, we got a weaker than expected employment report from ADP. The firm estimates that only 119,000 new private payrolls were created in April, below the 150,000 predicted by market economists. Last month's ADP results were revised down to 131,000 from 158,000.
Next up are ISM Manufacturing (predicted to fall to 50.5 from 51.3) and March construction spending growth (predicted to slow to 0.6% from 1.2%), both releases due out at 10 AM ET. Follow the data LIVE on Business Insider >