OVERVIEW: The headline general business conditions index climbed twenty-seven points but remained negative at -5.8. New orders declined modestly, while shipments held steady. Delivery times shortened, and inventories edged higher. Employment levels declined for the first time since early in the pandemic, and the average workweek shortened for a third consecutive month. Both input and selling price increases picked up. Looking ahead, firms expect business conditions to improve somewhat over the next six months.
New Fed manufacturing index for February 2023
- Prior month -32.9 (was expecting -9.0 estimate). Last month was the lowest level since May 2020
- New York Fed Manufacturing Index for February -5.8 versus -18 estimate
- New orders -7.8 versus -31.1 in January
- Shipments +0.1 versus -22.4 in January
- Prices paid +45.0 versus +33.0 in January
- Prices received 28.4 versus 18.8 in January
- Employment -6.6 in February versus +2.8 in January
- average employee workweek -12.1 versus -10.4 in January
- inventories 6.4 versus 4.5 in January
- delivery times -9.2 versus +0.9 in January
- unfilled orders -9.2 versus -14.3 in January
The six-month business conditions Index improved to +14.7 February versus +8.0 in January
- new orders 10.0 versus 10.4 last month
- shipments 10.9 versus 16.9 last month
- prices paid 49.5 versus 45.5 last month
- prices received 38.5 versus 33.9 last month
- employees 1.5 versus 9.7 last month
- average work week 10.1 versus 4.5 last month
- capital expenditures 18.3 versus 22.3 last month
- technical spending 10.1 versus 17.0 last month
A nice rebound from the prior months sharp fall. The data is still negative but the trend quickly reversed from survey participants.
/Inflation
