By Jill Mislinski
Fifth District manufacturing activity softened in September, according to the most recent survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. The composite index fell from 1 in August to -9 in September. Investing.com had forecast 2. Because of the highly volatile nature of this index, we include a 3-month moving average to facilitate the identification of trends, now at -6.7, which indicates contraction. The complete data series behind Wednesday's Richmond Fed manufacturing report, which dates from November 1993, is available here.
Here is a snapshot of the complete Richmond Fed Manufacturing