5th District Manufacturing Falls Further

The Federal Reserve’s Fifth District manufacturing index fell to -10 in February of 2025 from -6 in the previous month, the lowest in three months and missing expectations that it would improve to -4. The result reflected 12 months of negative readings, aligned with pessimistic signals from other regions of the US as tariffs magnified higher producer inflation to dent sentiment among goods producers. Shipments fall further (.13 vs .5 in January) as new orders dropped (-9 vs -6), even though companies continued to run through their order backlogs (-15 vs -13). In turn, prices paid remained elevated but at a softer pace than in the previous month (6.25 vs 7.06).