The Philadelphia Fed said Thursday its gauge of regional business activity inched up to negative 13.5 in July from negative 13.7 in the prior month. Any reading below zero indicates deteriorating conditions. This is the eleventh straight negative reading.

Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal expected a negative 10 reading in July.

The barometer on new orders fell 4.9 points to negative 15.9 in July. The shipments index fell 22.4 points to negative 12.5.

One bright spot was that the measure on six-month business outlook rose to 29.1 in July, the highest reading since August 2021.

The Philadelphia Fed index is one of the first regional manufacturing gauges that offer timely reads of the manufacturing sector.

The Philadelphia index is doing slightly better than the recent trend. It had averaged negative 15.5 over the last 10 months.

Earlier this week, the Empire State index showed manufacturing held steady at low levels in New York State. The general business conditions index fell 5.5 points to 1.1 in July

The ISM factory index contracted in June for the eighth straight month, falling to 46% from 46.9% in the prior month.

Source: Marketwatch