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The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has released its Empire Manufacturing Survey for the month of April. While conditions improved slightly, the overall index posted a drop of about six points to 3.1 for the month. March was up at 9.24, and Bloomberg had a consensus of 7.5 for the April report.

Today’s report showed that the new orders index was also positive but lower after falling by six points to 2.2. The shipments index fell seven points to 0.8. Today’s report also showed that the unfilled orders index fell by a point to −3.4, while the delivery time index also fell one point to −3.4. The inventories index was shown to have held steady at −4.6 in April.

Some 25% of respondents reported that conditions had improved over the month, while 22% said that conditions had worsened. Firms now also expect wages to increase by 2.5% over the next 12 months on average.

Our take on today’s Empire Manufacturing data is much the same of what have seen of late. Positive reports are out, but they continue to be less positive, and often are barely hanging up in positive territory.

S&P 500 futures are down about seven points and the DJIA futures are down about 42 points.