The latest index came in at 26, down 5 from last month's 31, but still indicating expansion in May. The future outlook inched down to 33 this month from 34. Here is a snapshot of the complete Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Survey.

Quarterly data for this indicator dates back to 1995, but monthly data is only available from 2001.

Here is an excerpt from the latest report:

Tenth District manufacturing activity continued to expand at a strong pace, and expectations for future activity remained solid (Chart 1, Tables 1 & 2). The index of prices paid for raw materials compared to a month ago posted a new survey record high for the second straight month, and prices received for finished goods also surpassed historical levels. Price indexes vs. a year ago also posted record highs, with 98% of firms reporting higher materials prices compared to a year ago. Moving forward, district firms expected materials prices and finished goods prices to continue to increase over the next six months. [Full report here]

Here is a snapshot of the complete Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Survey.

The next chart is an overlay of the general and future outlook indexes — the outlook six months ahead. Future factory indexes decreased slightly to 33.

For comparison, here is the latest ISM Manufacturing survey.

Let's compare all five Regional Manufacturing indicators. Here is a three-month moving average overlay of each since 2001 (for those with data).

Here is the same chart including the average of the five.