Palanor: Industrial Pulse

## What this measures

The Industrial Pulse Index reads the real economy operating heat — not its sentiment, not its asset prices, but the speed at which the country is making, moving, and selling things. The reading rises when the real economy is expanding and falls when it is contracting. It is designed to be the single number an operator can read alongside their own KPIs to understand whether their business is moving with the economy or against it.

## Why it matters

ISM Manufacturing and ISM Services cover the two halves of the production economy. Industrial production captures the level. Truck tonnage measures whether goods are moving. Retail sales captures whether the consumer is participating. JOLTS and temp help round out the picture by capturing the labor-market real-time read on demand. Together they give a picture that is closer to the ground than sentiment surveys alone.

## How to read it

Industrial Pulse is the operator index. It tells you whether the economy is running hot, cool, or contracting. When your own business is growing 6% and Industrial Pulse is reading 70, you are likely riding the cycle. When you are growing 6% and Industrial Pulse is reading 30, you are outperforming the cycle — and your peers are probably struggling.

## What it does not say

The index is US-centric. International operators should treat it as one read among several. The index does not capture financial-sector activity (banking, asset management) — it is intentionally a real-economy read.

## Methodology

PMI-style series enter as z-scores. Production, freight, retail, and temp help enter as 12-month percentage changes. All components positive. Weighted sum, logistic scaling. Bands: 0–35 contracting, 35–65 expanding at baseline pace, 65–100 expanding above baseline.

## Source

Computed daily by Palanor from 7 component signals in the lattice. Each component's weight, transform and current contribution is shown on the index's methodology page.