February Philly Fed another whopper of a disappointment

The February Philadelphia Fed index just came out, and like last month's reading, it was a whopper of a disappointment. The overall index plunged to -24. That's down from -20.9 a month earlier and far below the -10 reading that economists expected. It's also the worst reading since February 2001 (-29.6).

Meanwhile, the new orders sub-index came in at -10.9, versus -15.2 in January. The employment sub-index came in at +2.5, vs. -1.5, and the prices paid sub-index (a measure of inflation pressures) dipped to 46.6 from 49.8.