Philly Fed manufacturing beats but businesses are still struggling

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve's manufacturing index came in better than expected for February.

But the details showed that manufacturing activity in the region is still weak.

The headline index was -2.8, higher than the estimate for -3.5 according to Bloomberg.

The report showed continued weakness in business activity in the region. The new orders index fell to -5.3 from -1.4.

The employment index fell a bit and was still negative, while shipments stayed positive. And, the index for future general activity dropped to the weakest level in over three years.

The special question to manufacturers in February was about expected changes to prices received for goods and services over the next year.

From the release, "The median forecast was for an increase in their own prices of 1.3 percent, a rate of increase lower than the rate of inflation expected to be faced by the workers they employ regionally (2 percent) and lower than the rate of inflation expected for the average U.S. consumer (2 percent)."

More to come ...