Donald Trump’s “miraculous” manufacturing renaissance has hit something akin to stall speed in New York state.
The Empire Manufacturing index printed just 2.9 for November, near the low-end of the range (2.0-10.0 from 42 economists) and well below consensus (6.0).
That’s down from a hardly-“great again” 4.0 in October. As you can see, we’re going nowhere fast:
“Manufacturing firms in New York State reported that business activity was little changed from last month [as] general business conditions [were] sluggish for the sixth consecutive month”, the report reads.
New orders ticked higher and shipments fell a handful of points. Employment is doing ok, though. The jobs gauge rose to 10.4, marking a third straight month of expanding employment.
“Indexes assessing the six-month outlook suggested that optimism about future conditions remained subdued”, the report says.
Optimism is described as “restrained”.
On the bright side, the more “restrained” activity is, the more inclined the Fed will be to persist in an accommodative lean, even if that for now merely entails putting a dovish spin on a December “hold”.
And who knows, maybe New York is just feeling a little down in the dumps after the loss of one of its greatest capitalists, who declared last month he’d prefer to “take his talents” to Florida…
Maybe he can use some of his old New Jersey Generals “magic” on the Miami Dolphins.