The US Philadelphia Fed index strengthened surprisingly strongly. The index got a reading of 44.3, which is the highest since April 2021. Economists were expecting a reading of -5.0 points, and the previous December reading was a corrected -10.9.
The Philadelphia Fed Index tracks the cyclical outlook for factory production in the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank’s jurisdiction. Positive values indicate industrial growth and negative readings indicate a decrease.
The rise of the index was influenced by the increase in new orders. The index reading was 42.9 compared to the previous month’s -3.6. The index reading for deliveries also expected a strong positive turn to the level of 41.0, when the previous quotation was 1.7.
In the United States, other statistics were also published at the same time.
US retail sales rose 0.4 percent in December, while the forecast was 0.6 percent and the previous reading was 0.7 percent.
New unemployment compensation applications rose last week to 217,000 from the previous week’s 203,000 applications. Economists expected 210,000 new applications.
The economic statistics gave a conflicting picture of the economic development, and no clear reaction can be seen in the market.
Source: www.arvopaperi.fi
