US manufacturing indicator booms in September to 30 month high
US manufacturing data just smashed expectations.
The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey is in at 22.3 for September, up from 9.3 prior.
Analysts had forecast a rise of just 0.7 points to 10.
Amna Asaf, economist, Capital Economics:
The surge in September's US Philly Fed manufacturing index to a two-and-a-half-year high suggests that the recent improvement in the global economy is benefitting individual regions in the US. This particular District had been unusually weak over the past few years.
The details of the report show that the improvement was spread across several sub-indices: The new orders index rose to a two-and-a-half year high of +21.2, from +5.3, and the employment index increased to a 17-month high of +10.3, from +3.5. As a result, the weighted average of these tangible indices, along with a few others, bounced back, to +9.9, from -2.5.
The Philly Fed survey echoes the message from the Empire State survey (released earlier in the week) that US manufacturing activity is picking up in response to better overseas activity and probably a pick-up in domestic activity too.