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Thursday, February 27, 2014

Kansas City Fed: Regional Manufacturing increased "slightly" in February

by Calculated Risk on 2/27/2014 11:00:00 AM

From the Kansas City Fed: Growth in Tenth District Manufacturing was Slightly Positive

Growth in Tenth District manufacturing activity was slightly positive in February, and although producers’ expectations moderated somewhat they remained at solid levels overall. Several contacts continued to cite delays and slowdowns caused by severe winter weather issues. Price indexes were mostly stable or slightly lower.

The month-over-month composite index was 4 in February, similar to the reading of 5 in January and up from -3 in December ... The new orders, employment, and capital expenditures indexes were mostly unchanged.

“The story in February was similar to January. Regional factory activity was held back somewhat by unusually harsh weather, but still managed to grow modestly.” [said Chad Wilkerson, vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City]
emphasis added
This is the last of the regional surveys.  Here is a graph comparing the regional Fed surveys and the ISM manufacturing index:

Fed Manufacturing Surveys and ISM PMI Click on graph for larger image.

The New York and Philly Fed surveys are averaged together (dashed green, through February), and five Fed surveys are averaged (blue, through February) including New York, Philly, Richmond, Dallas and Kansas City. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) PMI (red) is through January (right axis).

This suggests another weak reading for the February ISM survey to be released Monday, March 3rd.