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Richmond Fed Collapse: Atlantic Region Manufacturing Enters Contraction As Raw Material Prices Increase At Highest Rate Since Index Inception

Tyler Durden's picture




 

The latest and last regional index confirms that the economy is now not only slowing its rate of expansion, but is in fact contracting. The narrative is plain ugly: "The index of overall activity was pushed into negative territory by weak readings for shipments and new orders, while employment growth held steady. Other indicators suggested additional softness. District contacts reported that capacity utilization turned negative and backlogs fell further, while delivery times grew more slowly. In addition, manufacturers reported an uptick in finished goods inventory growth." But not all is bad: for example those predicting inflation are once again proven correct: "Distrcit manufacturers reported that raw material prices increased at an average annual rate of 6.12 percent in May - the highest reading since the inception of our surve in December 1993 - compared to April's reading of 4.81 percent." Fear not: it is "transitory." And 82% of experts say no QE3 is coming so....

More from the report:

In May, the seasonally adjusted composite index of manufacturing activity—our broadest measure of manufacturing—fell sixteen points to -6 from April’s reading of 10. Among the index’s components, shipments decreased nineteen points to -13, new orders dropped twenty-five points to finish at -15, while the jobs index held steady at 14.

Other indicators were mostly weak. The index for capacity utilization moved down fourteen points to -12, and the backlog of orders index lost eighteen points to -19. The delivery times index declined thirteen points to end at 5, while our gauges for inventories were mixed in May. The finished goods inventory index edged up two points in May to end at 12, while the raw materials inventories index eased two points to 16.

And the latest spin from the apologists: since America doesn't really manufacture anything, who cares about manufacturing surveys. You can't make this up.

The two charts that matter:

Full report here.

Elsewhere, America sold 32,000 new homes in April, at a median and average sales prices of $217,900 and $268,900 respectively. On a NSA basis this is about 5.5 months of supply. For the first time in 2011, over 1000 houses priced more than $750,000 were sold in the month.

 

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Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:18 | 1304862 Dolemite
Dolemite's picture

Nasdaq not looking strong

http://deadcatbouncing.blogspot.com/

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:25 | 1304886 Weisbrot
Weisbrot's picture

Steve Wynn said it a while back

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWacc6L9NoU

 

 

 

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 11:24 | 1305128 camaro68ss
camaro68ss's picture

manufacture is for bitchez! its all about, printing, services and Banking!

QE to the X degree bitchez!

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:19 | 1304863 Racer
Racer's picture

The printed money heroin is killing the addict

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:24 | 1304869 101 years and c...
101 years and counting's picture

bernanke's reign of terror over the world is transitory.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:25 | 1304871 redarrow
redarrow's picture

No big deal. It can be fixed in 15 minutes by our Chairman.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:22 | 1304872 Translational Lift
Translational Lift's picture

" Fear not: it is "transitory."

So is a heart attack!!

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:25 | 1304873 hugovanderbubble
hugovanderbubble's picture

Look Greece CDS¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡lol

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:30 | 1304892 LRC Fan
LRC Fan's picture

Did Greece default or something?  Not seeing any news...

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:32 | 1304915 hugovanderbubble
hugovanderbubble's picture

Haircuts gonna hurt market

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:25 | 1304874 LRC Fan
LRC Fan's picture

Who cares?  Consumption is 70% of our economy anyway.  Markets seem to like this news.  That's all that matters.  Higher stock values will boost confidence, spurring more spending and thus more hiring to meet all the pent up demand.  That will in turn lead to higher corporate profits, and higher still stock prices, which will make consumers confident that the recovery is gaining traction.  They will boost spending even more, raising demand and also generating more tax revenues to offset our budget shortfall.  The government can then spend freely to upgrade our crumbling infrastructure, creating more jobs in the process. 

Did I hit all the talking points?  I think I got most of the big ones...

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:39 | 1304922 DeadFred
DeadFred's picture

A+ You can apply for that shill position now. lol

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:37 | 1304926 buzzsaw99
buzzsaw99's picture

omitted "...are necessary to retain top talent".

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 11:30 | 1305175 TruthInSunshine
TruthInSunshine's picture

If Ben Bubbles & Bananas Bernankincide did own a car, it would most assuredly be a Fiat.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:22 | 1304875 aheady
aheady's picture

Bloody hell.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:23 | 1304879 trillion_dollar...
trillion_dollar_deficit's picture

Sales and traffic down sharply while gas is $4/gallon. And that is even being mitigated somewhat by the Social Security tax cut.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:27 | 1304882 oogs66
oogs66's picture

Transitory:  "trA:nsIt@ri"   something that you don't want but is real and bad that you wish would go away.  Commonly applied to Herpes and Inflation.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:50 | 1304970 tarsubil
tarsubil's picture

I just love the humor of Zero Hedge.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:28 | 1304883 LRC Fan
LRC Fan's picture

Also can someone clear this up for me?  Serious question.

Every time the dollar falls vs the Euro, stocks go up because they are priced in cheaper dollars.  So why isn't there a corresponding fall in European stocks, since they have more expensive Euros?  This strikes me as very odd.  Seems like all the big players simply have long dollar/short SPY and short dollar/long SPY trades on, nothing else matters. 

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:32 | 1304906 buzzsaw99
buzzsaw99's picture

Be careful doing that or you'll go cross-eyed.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:38 | 1304929 oogs66
oogs66's picture

yeah, seems insane....us stocks go up when dollar is down, but euro stocks go up becasue us stocks went up....

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:39 | 1304932 tickhound
tickhound's picture

Seemingly odd-er, although not so much as of late, is when the metals "decide" to move with the dollar, and not against it. 

I enjoy days when metal thinks for itself.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:28 | 1304888 AccreditedEYE
AccreditedEYE's picture

Persistent High unemployment? Higher input costs? Fed mandate of inflation control and unemployment targeting both going to hell in a hand basket?

Yeah Ben, this QE thing is really saving the economy alright.... (rolls eye)

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 11:35 | 1305227 Mach1513
Mach1513's picture

Not persistent....

transitory.

Of course QE2 working. Think how much worse things would be without it. Like banksters forgoing their bonuses - and morning non-dairy soy milk lattes. Can't have that, can we?

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:27 | 1304894 mayhem_korner
mayhem_korner's picture

Ruh roh reorge.

Margins squeezed like a marshmallow into a piggy bank, and production coming down off its methadonic-QE high.

GS should be calling for the Dow 15K any minute now...

 

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:49 | 1304975 DeadFred
DeadFred's picture

All those compressed margins waiting to flow through as 'forbidden' price hikes. Will they come through as dribbles and drabbles or will they act like a laser where one forbidden state change induces a whole cascade. We may see a large spike in consumer prices soon as everyone passes through their costs at once.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 11:07 | 1305037 fuu
fuu's picture

You should see a massive wave of price increases in food over the next 30 days. Start watching for BOGO deals at a new higher price, then when the bogo ends the price will not drop.

 

That is currently the prefered method of hicking prices 5-10%. This goes for fresh beef, pork, chicken, veggies, milk, dry goods, canned goods, etc. It is pretty much across the board.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:27 | 1304896 hugovanderbubble
hugovanderbubble's picture

Richmond Top is a countercyclical signal of sell the f...g top

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:32 | 1304908 lizzy36
lizzy36's picture

On the way up all we heard was about the positive change in the second derivative. Now that we are getting negative change in the first derivative, we are hearing bull shit spin, like who cares about manufacturing anyway.

Oddly O'Bama has said the renaissance of America, is dependent on manufacturing and doubling exports in 5 years (3 yrs left). The corollary of that is killing the USD. What happens if the increase in manufacturing/exports fails to materialize to levels sufficient to underpin the "renaissance" and the only thing America is left with is a dollar that has lost 50% of its purchasing power in 10 years?

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:34 | 1304921 redarrow
redarrow's picture

That scenario is coming in 5 years, not 10.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:37 | 1304923 cowdiddly
cowdiddly's picture

I will give it about 2 or 3

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:51 | 1304963 baby_BLYTHE
baby_BLYTHE's picture

Nope. weeks, possibly a couple of months.

Printing money has never worked in the history of the world. No different this time.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:56 | 1304991 DeadFred
DeadFred's picture

Is this game like "The Price is Right" where you have to be closest without going over? I'm claiming 18 months.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 11:29 | 1305169 baby_BLYTHE
baby_BLYTHE's picture

I went ahead and junked myself on this one. You people obviously know something that I am not privy to.

Good luck!

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:52 | 1304985 Oh regional Indian
Oh regional Indian's picture

That scenario is already here. It's just hidden under a media blast of insane making proportions. The programming is constant for good reason. Too much slack and someone might wake up.

 

ORI

http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2011/05/24/ultrasound-to-the-mis-fit-in-us-all/

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:37 | 1304925 mayhem_korner
mayhem_korner's picture

We have the mother of all yard sales.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:40 | 1304938 InconvenientCou...
InconvenientCounterParty's picture

"On the way up all we heard was about the positive change in the second derivative. Now that we are getting negative change in the first derivative, we are hearing bull shit spin, like who cares about manufacturing anyway."

Who cares about public education either? Zero taxes == maximum liberty!

well, for me that is.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:45 | 1304959 Lionhead
Lionhead's picture

I love the US strong dollar policy. ;)

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/DTWEXM?cid=105

Very Strong!

 

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:33 | 1304911 Bansters-in-my-...
Bansters-in-my- feces's picture

Transitory...bitchez...!!!

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:43 | 1304948 aerial view
aerial view's picture

Higher costs

Less exports

Less jobs

Less recovery

More recession

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 11:48 | 1305288 Mach1513
Mach1513's picture

Transi....

Oh, s**t! Forget it.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:47 | 1304954 badameli
badameli's picture

Hey so for the past 2 months I have had a bid in for a short sale property list price 82k, my offer 75k. 2 months later, bank gives a counter offer. 87k.

 

Yes, that's right their counter took 2 months and was above the approved short sale list price.

 

There's a prime example of why this mess is taking forever to clear.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:56 | 1304992 tickhound
tickhound's picture

Mark to fantasy is a fun game with all kinds of new rules and rulers.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 11:07 | 1305026 DeadFred
DeadFred's picture

Correct. I hear lots of stories about banks jerking around the foreclosure sales. It's not about fixing the problem whether foreclosure backlog or manufacturing it's about making the numbers look nice. Your house is probably on some bank's asset sheet at twice the price you bid and they take a big paper hit by selling it to you. It would have been nice if they let you know that ahead of time before you wasted two months.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 11:10 | 1305039 badameli
badameli's picture

Well, the house was supposedly already approved for short sale at 82,000... Mostly they're wasting agents time. I'm not going to bother chasing. But hearing things like there are only around 30,000 listed homes (in the area), etc... makes me laugh.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 22:33 | 1307678 StychoKiller
StychoKiller's picture

Two can play that game, LOWER your offer to $69K(FRN)

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:44 | 1304956 baby_BLYTHE
baby_BLYTHE's picture

We are going into a Depression, folks.

Ben's 3 year experiment is about to blow up in everyone's face.

TOTAL and ABSOLUTE failure.

America is in trouble!

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 11:14 | 1305079 fuu
fuu's picture

Not to burst your bubble baby but America has been in a depression since 2001.

 

http://dshort.com/articles/2011/mega-bear-2000.html

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 11:30 | 1305194 baby_BLYTHE
baby_BLYTHE's picture

Pick one

a) Ben was correct. Saved us from another Great Depression (Deflationary Collapse) therefore re-writing the laws of Macro Economics

b) His money printing was a complete failure (as is always the case throughout history) and we are about to pay dearly for it.

Let's fight it out before we junk away

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 12:40 | 1305565 TheMerryPrankster
TheMerryPrankster's picture

the bernanke and his predecessor the illustrious Lord Vader/Greenspan are the penultimate cosmetic surgeons. Through their policies they have given the illusion of youth and vibrancy to a gnarled old wreck. They have applied the monetary equivalent of live botox bacteria  to hide the massive wrinkles of a dying economy, but in their haste to cement the illusion, they have merely accelerated the death.

It is this strange twilight world between regimes that instills a sense of confusion and in some despair. The old rules don't work or only work for certain classes of society. The new rules have yet to be discovered and land mines lurk behind placid illusions waiting to destroy us economically.

I agree that much pain will be the likely outcome, the timing and the location are so vague as to be useless in understanding how to profit or prepare. If the gods are quiet, a decade could pass before the inevitable collapse occurs, but if the gods be as their history  has shown them to be, imbued with a sense of merriment and entertainment at the sight of the plight of man, then an earthquake or two, an untimely death, a plague, or any of the other unstoppable forces of nature could predicate a collapse nearly overnight.

 

How shall we face the new day with such knowledge always at our backs? I tread lightly and cherish each day, and keep an eye out for symptoms of the inevitable. The world ends one day for us all, in the mean time live as humanity always has, with uncertainy around every corner. The last few decades has merely been a false calm, that has proven itself an illusion.

 

Live in the moment, know this world, it maybe the only one we ever have.

Invest in yourself.

 

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 12:48 | 1305585 TruthInSunshine
TruthInSunshine's picture

Pick one?

The three choices are, in reality:

a) Bernanklecide kicked the can down the street, and prayed for the best, or

b) Bernanklecide kicked the can down the street, and prayed for the best, or

c) Both a and b above.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 12:49 | 1305591 fuu
fuu's picture

I did not junk you, nor will I fall into a dialectic trap of a or b.

 

Ben is only the current face of what is wrong. This goes back further than Ben. It goes all the way back to the turn of the last century. This course was set long before Ben was even born.

 

Not that Ben is not an evil bastard. To focus on Ben is to miss the forest for the trees. The printing is just the lipstick on the pig was was gussied up long ago.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 13:22 | 1305736 TruthInSunshine
TruthInSunshine's picture

Oh, I'm down with that.

Really.

I often say that the Berncankle is merely a bagman for the puppet masters.

 

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 13:29 | 1305755 TruthInSunshine
TruthInSunshine's picture

double post (glitch in the Matrix, like Deja Vu)

 

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:51 | 1304983 PulauHantu29
PulauHantu29's picture

We The Fed to give us about $2 Trillion Boost to the economy to lower the dollar and stimulate exports.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:55 | 1304984 wombats
wombats's picture

Profits are down?  Looks like we need to accellerate our offshoring.  Time to stop wasting so much $ on overpriced American labor costs.  We can turn this around and be profitable just as soon as we get everybody on unemployment.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 11:12 | 1305069 Rodent Freikorps
Rodent Freikorps's picture

It isn't all labor. Regulations are a signifcant part.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 11:52 | 1305303 Mach1513
Mach1513's picture

When are they outscourcing traders for GS?

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 11:56 | 1305323 earnyermoney
earnyermoney's picture

Why outsource when you can replace with silicon chips?

 

So speedy at executing the firms trades, never get tired and no per diem on hookers and blow.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 10:59 | 1305007 scragbaker a ca...
scragbaker a cape cod clamdigger's picture

GOOGLE " Great Depression Headlines"  and select Joliet Remembers - which is the second choice down.  An elementary school child can see from these posted news paper headlines that NO ONE person was able to state the truth about the economic situation of the time.  It took at least three years before the smarter and more observant section of the USA population knew that this depression was something quite different, and that regardless of what the LEADERS were saying - things just weren't getting any better.  We could now be entering another period just like that. 

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 12:57 | 1305623 TheMerryPrankster
TheMerryPrankster's picture

Certain trendlines in data can show the reality that the economic propaganda machine tries so hard to mask.

Merely extrapolate how many months/years it would take to have full employment at the current hiring/job creation rate. - The answers is years, around 7 years.

Extrapolate how long to exhaust current inventory of unsold homes and shadow inventory of bank owned real estate. Again years, a 2 year supply of homes on the market, and likely another 2 to 3 years of homes in the bank REO pipline. Home sales will trail unemployment, until people have a job and a job history of some decent length (12-24 months) they won't even consider buying a house. So figure this number of 4 years will likley be even longer.

Tally up the number of persons on food stamps, currently 44.2 million people or one in 7 nationwide, soon that number will be 1 in 6, then 1 in 5. Watch this ratio it is like a anenometer telling you the wind speed is increasing and the storm grows closer.

There are certainly other tells, dig a bit look at credit spending, auto sales, personal assets, etc.

The Great Depression lasted over a decade, 2018 is probably the most optimistic date for a real economic change, with 2022 more likely. The only thing that changes this picture is a rapid technological change of some sort that would allow a transformation of our entire world. It might happen, but I've yet to see much to indicate it.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 11:07 | 1305038 mynhair
mynhair's picture

Looks like the PDs are in fund raising mode.  2 year auction may be a dud.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 11:12 | 1305048 Doyle Hargraves
Doyle Hargraves's picture

And the latest spin from the apologists: since America doesn't really manufacture anything, who cares about manufacturing surveys. You can't make this up.

 

We do manufacture something in America-Dollar based debt! If we count printing money and issuing debt our manufacturing base would trump the world's manufacturing base combined! This coupled with other 'Fed' reports will bring QE 3 online Mid-July or August maybe under another name or "Fed program", add in debt ceiling problems (which is just the Congress 'approving' more debt slavery for the people they 'represent'), and boom gas=$7.50 a gallon and PMs really get this party started!

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 11:20 | 1305118 slewie the pi-rat
slewie the pi-rat's picture

if it weren't for inflation, well, this is even worse than stagnant. 

BiChFlation.

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 13:58 | 1305882 andybev01
andybev01's picture

You forgot the 't'...

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 11:41 | 1305162 TruthInSunshine
TruthInSunshine's picture

Don't worry.

Ben B52-Bananas-Bubbles Bernankincide said high raw material input prices are and always will be 'transitory.'

Tue, 05/24/2011 - 12:15 | 1305434 AldoHux_IV
AldoHux_IV's picture

Further proof that Shitanke doesn't know what he's doing.

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