Manufacturing Weakness Continues: A Review of US Economic Data

So far this week, we’ve received a few data points that reinforce the manufacturing slowdown taking place in the US. Below is a calendar of events for the last couple days.

On Monday, we got the Empire State Survey, a survey of manufacturing in New York. Importantly, this is one of the few “soft” data points we have for April, so its message is important. It turned up slightly from last month, showing some stabilization and beating estimates, but it is still well down from 2018 levels.

Underneath the surface, the data was a bit less encouraging. In the 6-month outlook, expectations for general business conditions and new orders plunged.