Kansas City Fed: "Tenth District Manufacturing Activity Grew More Modestly"

From the Kansas City Fed: Tenth District Manufacturing Activity Grew More Modestly

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City released the April Manufacturing Survey today. According to Chad Wilkerson, vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, the survey revealed that Tenth District manufacturing activity grew more modestly, but expectations for future activity remained generally solid.

“Regional factory growth in April was a bit weaker than in March, but similar to previous months,” said Wilkerson. “About a third of firms noted that flooding and extreme weather had negatively affected their activity in recent months.”
...
The month-over-month composite index was 5 in April, down slightly from 10 in March but higher than 1 in February. The composite index is an average of the production, new orders, employment, supplier delivery time, and raw materials inventory indexes. Growth eased slightly in factory production of both durable and nondurable goods, particularly food, machinery, electronic, and chemical products. Most month-over-month indexes slowed in April but remained positive, with production, shipments, order backlog, and employment all decreasing. In contrast, the new orders index edged higher from 4 to 10. Most year-over-year factory indexes fell in April, and the composite index eased from 27 to 22. The future composite index also moved lower from 22 to 11, as most future factory activity indexes eased somewhat.
emphasis added

Most of the regional surveys have shown slower growth in April than in March.

from Calculated Risk http://bit.ly/2GwOSGi