August Philly Fed Index Preview
The August Philly Fed Index is expected to improve to -12.6 following a -16.3 reading in July and a -17.1 reading in June. The July New Orders Index improved slightly to -12.1, the July Shipments Index fell to -8, the July Employee’s Index fell to -7.3 and the July Prices Paid Index surged to 75.6 from 69.3 in June.
Despite the considerable improvement from its record low in April at -24.9, the Philly Fed Index continues to underperform the other major manufacturing surveys. Elevated prices will continue to complicate the performance of manufacturers in the region going forward.
The Empire State Index improved to 2.8 in August from -4.9 in July; however prices remained elevated as New York manufactures noted higher resource and employee benefit costs. The Philly Fed Index has underperformed the Empire State Index almost every month for the past 2 years.