Philadelphia Fed business outlook for January 2020
- Philadelphia Fed index up 17.0 versus 3.7 estimate
- prior month 2.4%. It was originally released at 0.3 but revised higher before today's report
- new orders 18.2 versus 11.1 last month
- price is paid 22.1 versus 19 last month
- employment 19.3 versus 16.8 last month
- average work week 5.2 versus 8.5 last month
- prices received 14.7 versus 11.0 last month
- shipments 23.4 versus 15.7 last month
- unfilled orders -3.7 versus 8.6 last month
- delivery time -0.4 versus 12.5 last month
- inventories -2.3 versus +5.0 last month
- The index is the highest level since May 2019 when it reached 17.5
the six-month forward data forecast shows
- general business activity 38.4 versus 34.8 last month
- new orders 41.9 versus 33.6 last month
- number of employees 24.3 versus 27.4 last month
- average work week 13.2 versus 17.5 last month
- capital expenditures 32.9 versus 26.0 last month
- shipments 42.4 versus 38.7 last month
- price is paid 41.9 versus 46.0 last month
- prices received 34.0 versus 45.1 last month
Overall a good/much better than expectations report, and a nice rebound from the dip in December. The index is near the highest levels going back to the 3rd quarter of 2018 (the high was at 17.5 over that period).