Philly Fed index falls unexpectedly in April

Factory sector activity in the US mid-Atlantic region softened again unexpectedly in April, the results of a closely followed survey revealed.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's regional manufacturing sector index declined from a reading of -23.2 for March to -31.3 in April.

Economists had penciled in a reading of -20.0.

However, a key sub-index for new orders improved, rising from -28.2 to -22.7, while that tracking the prices paid by companies fell from 23.5 to 8.2.

The sub-index for employment meanwhile rose from -10.3 to -0.2.

Kieran Clancy, senior US economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, noted that Thursday's print for the Philly Fed index followed a "much stronger" one for the NY Fed's gauge, a timely reminder that no single Fed survey was gospel.

Nonetheless, the rise in the subindices for shipments and new orders mirrored the improvement seen in the NY Fed survey, he said.

And the the average of the future capex indices from the two surveys rose from 4.8 to 5.6, but remained "significantly" beneath the first quarter average of 11.4 "which already is low enough to signal a rollover in real non-residential investment".