Central Atlantic manufacturing weakens

The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Va., said Central Atlantic manufacturing weakened in July but the six-month outlook remained positive. The manufacturing index for the region dropped from 7 to minus 11, pushed lower by declines in new orders, shipments, volume of orders, backlog of orders, capacity utilization and on two employment measures. The volume of new orders index slid from 9 to minus 15. The number of employees index held unchanged at zero while the index measuring the average number of hours worked dropped from 11 to 2 and the wages index fell from 11 to 8. The backlog of orders index fell sharply, falling from minus 1 to minus 24. The capacity utilization index -- measuring factories compared with capacity at full steam -- slipped from 1 to minus 9.