by Calculated Risk on 12/20/2019 11:00:00 AM

From the Kansas City Fed: Tenth District Manufacturing Activity Decreased Further in December

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City released the December Manufacturing Survey today. According to Chad Wilkerson, vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, the survey revealed that Tenth District manufacturing activity decreased further in December while expectations for future activity remained positive.

“Regional factory activity declined for the sixth straight month in December, driven again by weaker activity in durable goods manufacturing,” said Wilkerson. “About half of District firms said weakening in other goods-producing sectors (such as energy and agriculture) has negatively affected business in their area.”
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The month-over-month composite index was -8 in December, down from -3 in both November and October. The composite index is an average of the production, new orders, employment, supplier delivery time, and raw materials inventory indexes. The decrease in district manufacturing activity continued to be driven by weak activity at durable goods plants, especially from declines in: wood products, nonmetallic mineral products, primary metal, fabricated metal products, machinery, and computer and electronic products manufacturing. Most month-over-month indexes fell in December. The shipments index turned negative and the production, new orders, order backlog, and employment indexes declined further. Aside from the index for raw materials prices, only the supplier delivery time index remained slightly positive.
emphasis added

Another weak regional manufacturing report.