US Philly Fed manufacturing index improves sharply in December

Conditions in the US manufacturing sector in the mid-Atlantic region improved sharply in December.

The Federal Reserve bank of Philadelphia's manufacturing sector index rose from 7.6 for November to 21.5.

However, the widely-tracked gauge of new orders declined from 18.6 to 13.9, while that linked to the prices paid by companies rose from 27.5 to 29.4.

A sub-index referencing the number of employees at firms improved from -2.6 to 6.4 while another which measures the length of the average workweek rose from 7.4 to 9.8.