September Empire Fed -11.9 vs +3.85 expected

• Empire Fed -11.9 vs +11.5 prior

Details:

• New orders: -10.2 vs +9.4 prior
• Shipments: -2.7 vs +17.9 prior
• Unfilled orders: -2.2 vs +2.1 prior
• Delivery times: -3.2 vs -1.1 prior
• Inventories: -7.5 vs 0.0 prior
• Prices paid: 29.0 vs 23.2 prior
• Prices received: 10.8 vs 7.4 prior
• Employment: 4.1 vs -5.7 prior
• Average employee workweek: 4.7 vs 2.9 prior
• Supply availability: -7.5 vs -2.1 prior

Six-month ahead expectations:

• General business conditions: 38.7 vs 30.6 prior
• New orders: 38.4 vs 39.9 prior
• Capital expenditures: 9.7 vs -2.1 prior

Despite the overall contraction, there were some bright spots:

1. Labor market conditions improved slightly, with small increases in both employment and average workweek.
2. Optimism about the six-month outlook grew strongly, with the future business conditions index climbing to 38.7, a multi-year high.

USD/JPY slipped lower after the data.

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.