Philly Fed index beats expectations in November

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve manufacturing index beat expectations in November, a report released on Thursday showed.

The gauge rose from -4.5 in October to 1.9 this month, returning into positive territory for the first time in two months and surpassing forecast for a -0.8 reading.

However, the sub-indices tracking new orders and shipments both remained negative, although they showed some improvement.

A gauge of the 'prices paid' by firms dipped to a reading of -4.9 from -0.1 in the month before.

Another sub-index, tracking the number of employees rose to 2.6 after a print of -1.7 in the month before.