Philly Fed Collapses By Most Ever To 40 Year Lows

Philly Fed joined the rest of the regional Fed surveys in an utter bloodbath.

Against expectations of a -32.0 print, Philly Fed crashed to -56.6 – the lowest since 1980 and the biggest 2-month drop in history…

Source: Bloomberg

Under the hood it’s ugly:

• April prices paid fell to -9.3 vs 4.8

• New orders fell to -70.9 vs -15.5

• Employment fell to -46.7 vs 4.1

• Shipments fell to -74.1 vs 0.2

• Delivery time rose to 4.1 vs -9.1

• Inventories fell to -10.2 vs 1.7

• Prices received fell to -10.6 vs 6.8

• Unfilled orders fell to -13.5 vs -7.4

• Average workweek fell to -54.5 vs 0.5

Philly joins Dallas and New York in its slump…

Source: Bloomberg

Bear in mind that the people surveyed in Philadelphia in February were the most exuberant since Fed 2017… and now they are the most pessimistic in 40 years!?? What use are these ‘soft’ surveys?