Recent reports offer more signals that the economy is slowing. In the manufacturing sector, there were negative readings (which signal contraction) reported for the New York and Philadelphia regions this month. The Empire State Index contracted sharply to -32.9, which was much worse than estimates, while the Philadelphia Fed Index remained in contraction territory for the fifth straight month. Meanwhile, Retail Sales were also down 1.1% in December, which was a bigger decline than economists had forecasted, showing a disappointing end to the holiday shopping season.