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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Richmond Fed: Manufacturing Activity Weakens in June

Courtesy of Doug Short’s Advisor Perspectives.

Today the Richmond Fed Manufacturing Composite Index fell 6 points to -7 from last month’s -1. Investing.com had forecast 2. Because of the highly volatile nature of this index, we include a 3-month moving average to facilitate the identification of trends, now at 2, still indicating expansion. The complete data series behind today’s Richmond Fed manufacturing report (available here), which dates from November 1993.

Here is a snapshot of the complete Richmond Fed Manufacturing Composite series.

Richmond Fed Manufacturing

Here is the latest Richmond Fed manufacturing overview.

Fifth District manufacturing activity weakened in June, according to the most recent survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. New orders and shipments declined this month, while backlogs decreased further compared to last month. Manufacturing employment softened, while firms continued to increase wages. Prices of raw materials rose somewhat more slowly this month and finished goods prices rose slightly faster in June, compared to last month.

Manufacturers’ positive expectations faded in June. Producers anticipated mild growth in shipments and in the volume of new orders in the next six months. Compared to last month’s outlook, backlogs and capacity utilization were expected to level off. Firms looked for vendor lead times to lengthen slightly during the six months ahead.

Looking ahead, more survey participants expected slower growth in the number of employees and a shorter average workweek. However, an increasing number of firms anticipated wage increases. Producers expected faster growth in prices paid and received. Link to Report

Here is a somewhat closer look at the index since the turn of the century.

since 2000

Is today’s Richmond composite a clue of what to expect in the next PMI composite? We’ll find out when the next ISM Manufacturing survey is released (below).

Because of the high volatility of this series, we should take the data for any individual month with the proverbial grain of salt.

Let’s compare all five Regional Manufacturing indicators. Here is a three-month moving average overlay of each since 2001 (for those with data).

Here is the same chart including the average of the five.

Here are the remaining four monthly manufacturing indicators that we track:

Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey (TMOS)

Kansas City Manufacturing Survey

Empire State Manufacturing Survey

Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey

Regional Fed Overview

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