Philadelphia Fed Business index for February 18.1 vs 20.0 estimate

• Prior month 44.3 (the expectation was for -5.2….The result may have been influenced by the election)
• Manufacturing index for February 18.1 vs 20.0 estimate

Details:

• 6 month index 27.8 vs 46.3 last month.
• Capex index 6-month forward 14.0 vs 39.0 last month
• employment 5.3 vs 11.9 last month
• Prices paid 40.5 vs 31.9 last month
• New Orders 21.9 vs 42.9 last month
• Shipments 26.3 versus 41.0 last month.
• Unfilled orders 1.4 versus 24.0 last month
• delivery time 12.4 versus 6.8 last month.
• Inventories -0.4 versus 11.7 last month.
• Average workweek 2.9 versus 20.5 last month.

For 6 month forward:

• New orders 33.1 versus 57.3 last month.
• Shipments 36.5 versus 60.2 last month
• unfilled orders 11.0 versus 14.5 last month.
• Delivery times -1.2 versus 0.5 last month.
• Inventories 16.4 versus 20.2 last month.
• Prices paid 50.6 versus 67.3 last month
• prices received 46.1 versus 53.6 last month
• employment 23.7 versus 40.4 last month
• average workweek 11.6 versus 14.9 last month

Summary from the Federal Reserve of Philadelphia:

Responses to the February Manufacturing Business
Outlook Survey suggest regional manufacturing activity
continued to expand this month. The indicatorsfor current
activity, new orders, and shipments remained elevated. On
balance, the firms indicated an increase in employment, and
the price indexes remained above their long-run averages.
The survey’s broad indicators for future activity suggest
expectations for growth over the next six months.

Last month’s surge seems to have been an anomaly, but the index remains positive and near higher levels going back to April 2022.

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at www.forexlive.com.