September 2018 Philly Fed Manufacturing Survey Improved

Written by Steven Hansen

The Philly Fed Business Outlook Survey improved and remains in expansion. Key elements significantly improved.

This is a very noisy index which readers should be reminded is sentiment based. The Philly Fed historically is one of the more negative of all the Fed manufacturing surveys but has been more positive than the others recently.

The index moved from +11.9 to +22.9. Positive numbers indicate market expansion, negative numbers indicate contraction. The market expected (from Nasdaq / Econoday) 13.9 to 21.1 (consensus +19.2).

Regional manufacturing activity continued to grow in September, according to results from this month’s Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey. The survey’s broad indicators for general activity, new orders, shipments, and employment remained positive and increased from their readings in August. The survey’s respondents reported diminished price pressures this month. Expectations for the next six months remained optimistic, but most broad future indicators showed some moderation.

Current Indicators Show Improvement

The diffusion index for current general activity increased 11 points this month to 22.9, returning the index to near its average reading for 2018 (see Chart 1). Over 38 percent of the manufacturers reported increases in overall activity this month, while 15 percent reported decreases. The new orders index increased 12 points to 21.4. This month, 42 percent of the firms reported an increase in new orders, up from 34 percent in August. The current shipments index also improved, increasing 3 points to 19.6. The current inventories index fell 19 points this month and recorded its first negative reading in seven months. The firms, on balance, reported an increase in unfilled orders and longer delivery times.

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Econintersect believes the important elements of this survey are new orders and unfilled orders . New orders significantly declined but remains in expansion whilst unfilled orders moderately declined.

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This index has many false recession warnings.

Summary of all Federal Reserve Districts Manufacturing:

Richmond Fed (hyperlink to reports):

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Kansas Fed (hyperlink to reports):

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Dallas Fed (hyperlink to reports):

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Philly Fed (hyperlink to reports):

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New York Fed (hyperlink to reports):

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Federal Reserve Industrial Production – Actual Data (hyperlink to report):

Holding this and other survey’s Econintersect follows accountable for their predictions, the following graph compares the hard data from Industrial Products manufacturing subindex (dark blue bar) and US Census manufacturing shipments (lighter blue bar) to the Philly Fed survey (yellow bar).

In the above graphic, hard data is the long bars, and surveys are the short bars. The arrows on the left side are the key to growth or contraction.

Caveats on the use of Philly Fed Business Outlook Survey:

This is a survey, a quantification of opinion – not facts and data. Surveys lead hard data by weeks to months, and can provide early insight into changing conditions. Econintersect finds they do not necessarily end up being consistent compared to hard economic data that comes later, and can miss economic turning points.

This survey is very noisy – and recently showed recessionary conditions. And it is understood from 3Q2011 GDP that the economy was expanding even though this index was in contraction territory. On the positive side, it hit the start and finish of the 2007 recession exactly.

No survey is accurate in projecting employment – and the Philly Fed Business Outlook Survey is no exception. Although there are some general correlation in trends, month-to-month movements have not correlated with the BLS Service Sector Employment data.

Over time, there is a general correlation with real business data – but month-to-month conflicts are frequent.

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