“Texas’ factory activity continued to contract in March,” according to the monthly business activity survey conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and released yesterday.
Most indicators of current factory activity ticked up, but remained overwhelmingly negative, the Fed said.
The general business conditions index narrowed to negative 49.0 in March from negative 57.3 in February.
The production index rose to negative 22.3 from negative 36.1, while capacity use increased to negative 25.5 from negative 37.2, the Fed reported. Volume of new orders narrowed to negative 30.1 from negative 41.2 and the growth rate of orders index rose to negative 35.9 from negative 40.2.
As for the future outlook six months from now, the general business conditions index improved to negative 7.9 from negative 31.6 last month, the production index increased to 13.9 from 6.3, and capacity use rose to 9.0 from 4.2.
