At 10:00 AM the Philadelphia Fed Index will be announced for the month of July.   The index is the 2nd of the 4 major regional indices.  The Empire State Manufacturers index was released on Tuesday and it showed a modest rise versus last month but still showed contraction in the manufacturing sector.   These two indices, because of their timeliness, are often used as a proxy for the current health of the manufacturing economy in the United States .  Last month the index declined greater than expectations to -17.1 from -15.6 the month before.  The low point was -24.9 in April.  This month the expectation is for a decline of -15.2.  The index has been negative indicating contraction since December 2007.