EmailManufacturing activities in the Philadelphia region crashed in August as the Philly Fed Business Outlook declined from 3.2 in July to -30.7. That was the lowest level since reaching -30.8 in March 2009. The Briefing.com consensus expected the index to fall modestly to 1.0.
There was nothing positive in the Business Outlook. Every sector declined on a monthly basis. Prices were the only sector that remained in positive territory, declining from 25.1 to 12.8. The rest of the sectors -- including new orders, unfilled orders, shipments, and employment -- all contracted on a monthly basis.
New orders took the biggest hit, falling from 0.1 in July to -26.8 in August. Unfilled orders followed suit and declined from -16.3 to -20.9. Given these two readings, there was no way for shipments to expand; the sector fell from 4.3 in July to -13.9 in August.
The outlook does not look much better six months from now. One month after rebounding over 20 points, the long-term index fell from 23.7 in July to 1.4 in August. That is the weakest the index has been since December 2008.
