Philly Fed said Thursday that the region’s manufacturing sector continued to contract this month, according to firms polled for the March Business Outlook Survey. Indexes for general activity, new orders, shipments, and employment remained significantly negative…The survey’s broadest measure of manufacturing conditions, the diffusion index of current activity, edged higher, from -41.3 in February to -35.0 this month. Last month’s reading was the lowest since October 1990. The index has been negative for 15 of the past 16 months.