Central Atlantic manufacturing goes flat

Central Atlantic manufacturing flattened in August with a drop in new orders, the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Va., said Tuesday. The manufacturing index for the Federal Reserve's Fifth District dropped from 14 in August to zero in September with the volume of new orders index sliding from 16 to 5, the Fed said. The component index measuring the number of employees went from growth at 6 to contraction at minus 6. The wage index held steady at 13, indicating growth. The average workweek index dropped from 8 to minus 4. The indexes for vendor lead time and capacity utilization were near neutral showing slight growth, the Fed said.