Compucredit Holdings Corp (NASDAQ: CCRT), Synthesis Energy Systems (NASDAQ: SYMX) and China Agritech Inc (NASDAQ: CAGC) are stocks which have their performance highly correlated with manufacturing operations. With production slowing down across the world, investors in these stocks need to be cautious.

Global manufacturing has taken a beating in China, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and almost every major economy in the recent times and it automatically raises concerns about the effects of this slowdown.

Manufacturing data isn’t exactly a leading indicator; nevertheless, it does offer some insights. An important constituent of the overall economy, manufacturing provides employment to the masses. Thus, the effects of a slowdown in manufacturing also affect masses and often the effects unfold over a long period of time.

Not that the United States is the manufacturing hub of the world any longer, a lot of goods are still produced on this land. Companies producing them need loans to run their factories and interest costs have high bearing on their financials in factories operate at sub-optimum levels.

Compucredit Holdings Corp (NASDAQ: CCRT) provides credit and related services to the financially underserved credit market. The stock currently trades at $2.39, barely 10 per cent above its year low of $2.18 it made last month. Even though it is trading at these low levels, the stock failed to get support at crucial levels during the month. It may still be some more time before the effects of this slowdown unfolds. Better to stay away for some time.

Synthesis Energy Systems (NASDAQ: SYMX) is an alternative energy technology form that caters to the energy and chemical industries. Almost all of its end products are used in the manufacturing industry and it is not difficult to see how adverse the impact may be on this development stage company. Trading at $2.3, the stock has lost close to a third of its value in the last 3 months. Except for the sudden double digit spikes like today’s, the trend is still negative in this stock.

China Agritech Inc (NASDAQ: CAGC) is a fertilizer company with major operations in China. Having most of its business in China exposes it to the risk. Although the direct impact isn’t likely to be huge, this remote negative is also enough to break the back of the proverbial horse. The stock is already under pressure after shedding 17 per cent in the last week.