By Allison Prang 
 

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's monthly report on manufacturing showed that activity slowed while expectations for future general activity were slightly better.

The June diffusion index for general business activity for the Philly Fed's Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey was 0.3, down from 16.6 last month. The Philly Fed said the 0.3 reading was the index's lowest reading since February.

The indexes that measure new orders, shipments and prices paid all fell. The indexes measuring unfilled orders and delivery times rose, and the index measuring inventories had a positive reading, up from a negative reading for the month before.

The prices received index fell to 0.6 compared with 17.5 for the month before. The indexes measuring number of employees and average employee workweek both dropped.

The Philly Fed said that 9% of firms reported drops in employment. At the same time, almost 25% of firms reported higher employment, it said.

The general business activity index that looks six months ahead was 21.4 for June, up from 19.7 for last month.

Write to Allison Prang at allison.prang@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 20, 2019 09:23 ET (13:23 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.