Catching Up From From Yesterday: Philly Fed Index Positive for 9th Month and Jobless Claims Flat

"According to the firms polled for this month’s Philadelphia Federal Reserve Business Outlook Survey, regional manufacturing activity continues to expand. Firms reported some expansion of overall employment again this month. The survey’s broadest measure of manufacturing conditions, the diffusion index of current activity, increased slightly from 20.2 in April to 21.4 in May. The index has now edged higher for four consecutive months and has remained positive for the ninth consecutive month (see chart above)."

MP: More evidence of a V-shaped economic recovery in the Philadelphia Fed region for manufacturing output. 

From the Department of Labor report yesterday: In the week ending May 15, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 471,000, an increase of 25,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 446,000. The 4-week moving average was 453,500, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's unrevised average of 450,500 (see chart below).

Comment yesterday from Scott Grannis about jobless claims: "No sign of a recession here." (Thanks to Morganovich for the suggestion to update jobless claims.)