US Economic Indicators (week of 17 to 23 October 2011)

Several regional manufacturing surveys went deep into negative territory during the summer, especially the Philadelphia Fed index, which dropped sharply by 33.9 points to –30.7. However, the national ISM survey and the Chicago PMI – which registers national activities of Chicago-based enterprises – did not repeat that decline. The manufacturing ISM actually improved to 51.6 in September, signaling ongoing, albeit moderate, expansion in the manufacturing sector. Rising factory orders underline this tendency. Against this background, we expect the Empire State Manufacturing Index of the New York Fed and the Philadelphia Fed Index to haveimproved further. Thus the New York Empire manufacturing index could have gone up slightly from –8.8 to –2.0, and the Philadelphia Fed index could have risen to about –8.0 in October.

Please see the attached pdf file for the full report.