South Korea factory output contracts in Oct, PMI shows

SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea's factory activity contracted in October after briefly expanding a month earlier as businesses remained cautious amid a global outlook clouded by Washington's tariff policies. The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for manufacturers in Asia's fourth-largest economy, released by S&P Global, fell to 49.4 in October, from 50.7 in September. The 50-mark separates expansion from contraction on a monthly basis. Conditions in South Korea's manufacturing sector have now deteriorated for eight of the past nine months. Businesses reported contractions in both output and new orders and cited a domestic downturn as well as the impact of U.S. tariffs weighing on overall demand. "The positive signals for the South Korean manufacturing economy observed at the end of the third qu